01x10 - Queena Phu

[bunniefuu]

[apprehensive music]

- She was just so
happy all the time.

- There wasn't even
a thought something

Bad happening in this town.

- She's like, "oh, there's
a weird-looking guy sitting

On the bench over there."
I heard her scream.

And the phone just went dead.

- And they had found bloody
fingerprints of her hands

Scraping along a brick wall.

[intense music]

- My mom called me.

And she just said,
"we found the body."

- This was a case that
started out as a whodunit.

- My sister had no enemies.

- Lo and behold,
he walks in the library.

- At that point, the pieces
started to come together.

- It definitely was just
our worst nightmare.

[apprehensive music]

♪ ♪

- A young woman
is missing tonight

After leaving a bar
with a stranger,

Then texting help to a friend.

♪ ♪

- You are watching
her terrifying abduction.

♪ ♪

- A missing woman's nude body
was discovered in this ravine.

- Miraculously,
the young woman survived.

♪ ♪

[camera shutter clicking]

- There is an alarming crisis
of violence,

Kidnapping, and m*rder
against innocent women.

- The senseless m*rder
has struck a chord

With thousands of women.

♪ ♪

- This has sparked
a global movement online

Of women sharing
their own fears.

They're united under a
hashtag #textmewhenyougethome,

A phrase that women
are all too familiar with.

♪ ♪

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- Queena is my younger sister,

And we are 3 1/2 years apart.

My mom didn't have any boys,

And so it's always been

My mom, myself, and my sister.

A very tight, you know,
three-women unit.

- Mommy.

- She always had
a smile on her face.

She didn't have
a care in the world.

She was just so
happy all the time,

The most friendliest,
bubbliest person we all knew.

She was studious,

But she wasn't a nerd,

If that makes any sense.

She wasn't nerdy.

She was just very smart.

- She started
volunteering at school.

She volunteered
with an organization

Called best buddies,
where she would partner

With a disabled
friend in school

And just be his buddy
for the whole year.

She volunteered at a hospice.

And she didn't mean to
become miss popular.

She just was.

[upbeat music]

- We were best friends.

We worked in retail together.

We did a lot of shopping, so...

♪ ♪

We would text a lot.

We communicated via text.

We talked about work,
school,

What we wanted to do
after school, hanging out.

We were always
talking to each other.

We would be together,
and then we would leave,

And we would still just text
each other or call each other.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- Queena was working

At abercrombie & fitch

During her senior year.

She loved the store.
She loved her job.

- Even though there was
employee parking

At the mall
where we worked,

Especially if you're closing,

You're walking through the
parking lot late at night.

So we would just call
each other

To have someone be on
the phone with.

- Random attacks on
women in bloomingdale

Were very, very rare.

I can't remember another

Specific incident when--

In the bloomingdale area,
especially nothing

Of this nature.

- We were on our way
to orlando for grad bash.

And I remember queena
and I having a conversation

As we're sitting on
the bus together.

As a precaution, just in
case, we should probably

Have each other's
families' phone numbers,

Because you just never know.

[chuckles]

[dark chords]

- It was a Thursday,

And it was
just a normal day.

We were going to celebrate
her birthday that weekend.

Because
she had just turned 18,

A lot of our friends

Were actually going
to go out that night.

- So we were on the
phone after her shift,

And we were talking
about her night out.

And that's when
she had told me

That she had to quickly
stop through the library

On her way home.

Didn't think anything of it.

It was just
she's pulling into the library

Saying she had to
drop off books.

♪ ♪

And as she's driving up
to the drop box,

She's like, "oh,
there's a weird-looking guy

Sitting on the bench
over there."

Make sure you stay
on the phone with me.

So of course, I do.

♪ ♪

She was just planning
on using the drop box,

So she, in theory,
shouldn't have even

Had to get out of her car.

I heard her door chime
going off in her car,

And I ask her, "why are you
getting out of your car?"

And she had her books

That she was returning
in the back seat.

So she had to exit her vehicle
and open up her back door

To access the books.

And it was within
that moment

That I heard...

[queena screams]

Her scream.
[phone line clicks]

And the phone just went dead.
[phone beeping]

♪ ♪

I called her back immediately.

[phone ringing]

[line ringing]

Repeat calling,
repeat calling.

I kept getting her voicemail.

- Your call has been
forwarded.

- She wasn't
answering her phone.

Like, a few minutes
go by, and I just--

I knew something was wrong.
[line ringing]

- I called our mutual
friend priscilla.

She lived closer
to the library.

I asked her if she would
go to the library

To just check on her
and make sure

It wasn't a prank
or something like that,

Just make sure
she wasn't in any danger.

Priscilla had started
calling her phone as well,

And when priscilla
couldn't get through to her

And neither could I,
that's when she was like, ok,

I need to get in my car
and go check on her.

I just had a feeling.

Like, I just-I knew
something was wrong.

So I had vanna's number
in my phone, luckily.

- I told her that
I had asked priscilla

To go and check on her and she
was on her way to the library.

- I was out at a restaurant
with a few friends.

I saw that I had a couple
missed calls from my mom.

And I listened
to the voicemail

And my mom had left
a message that said,

"your sister's missing.

Call me back right away."

My first intuition was
my sister

Went off with a friend to go
get ready for her birthday.

- And I told the table
of friends,

"something's not right,
something's wrong.

I need to leave."

So I got in the car,

And my boyfriend
at the time drove--

I don't think we've ever
driven any faster than that.

[intense music]

I was so anxious.

I remember asking him to pull
over, and I just threw up.

I was just so torn up inside,
so confused.

We got back in the car,
and we kept going.

- After priscilla had gotten
to the library,

That's when she noticed that
queena's car was still running,

Doors were open,
radio playing,

And her phone
on the ground in pieces.

And that's when she knew
that something had happened.

So priscilla had called 911.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

[queena screaming]

[phone beeping]

[dark music]

[intense musical buildup]

[somber music]

- I mean, just driving up

And seeing the--

Like, the lights,
the ambulance, the sirens,

Everything, the panic--

It was scary.

It definitely was just
our worst nightmare.

♪ ♪

She was, like, in a ditch
area behind the library.

- On the way to the library,

My mom called me one more time

With very, very short,

Brief sentence, she just said,

"we found the body."

I'm thinking, ok, this sounds
like my sister is dead.

[phone rings]

- I received a call
from my supervisor.

He asked me if I could respond
to the bloomingdale library.

Didn't have a lot of details.

He told me that there was
a woman, um, beaten---

Beaten up there.

And I headed to
the bloomingdale library.

[somber music]

- When we pulled
into the library,

There was a body
on a stretcher.

And I was just standing
there looking at the scene,

Watching who I thought
was my sister

Being lifted
into the helicopter.

I felt a moment of relief,

Thinking
that she must be alive

Or else they wouldn't be
putting her in a helicopter.

Everyone at the library
was just huddled around.

All you could hear was
people crying and saying,

"I don't know what happened."

"is queena going to be ok?"

And none of the pieces
were fitting together yet.

- I arrive at the crime scene.

The car is still there.

The cell phone's
next to the car.

It's in two pieces.

And there's blood drops on
the ground by the cell phone.

The blood drops,
which can be plainly seen,

Travel around the back
part of the vehicle,

And they go north to
the front of the library.

We came around
the back of the library,

And we saw a backpack
laying on the ground.

The contents were scattered
throughout the ground.

And there was two large--

Pretty large bloodstains
that you could see.

[dark chords]

Obviously, they were
from the victim.

There was also a no-parking
sign in front of the library

With a bloody handprint on it.

So that must have been
queena's handprint.

She was fighting all the way.

♪ ♪

- We didn't really know
the extent of the attack

Whenever we had first
gotten to the hospital.

- It was quiet.

We just--it was very solemn.

- We're just all waiting there.

We had no idea what the
extent of her injuries were,

If she was alive.

So it was heart-wrenching.

♪ ♪

- When I finished up
at the crime scene,

I went to the hospital in
hopes of doing an interview

With queena that night.

Of course, I got there,
queena was unconscious.

So what I did was
I interviewed her mother

And I interviewed anna,

And I wanted to know if queena
had a boyfriend, ex-boyfriend.

Did she have
a beef with anybody?

Was there anybody at work that
she was having problems with?

Was there anybody at school

That she
was having problems with?

- We couldn't think of anybody
who would do such a thing.

She worked at the mall.

There could have been
a disgruntled customer

Or random person.

- Crimes person-on-person--
I would say, usually,

The victim and suspect
know each other.

We didn't have that.

It makes it really tough
at that point.

That night, I spoke with

Several of the hospital staff
members,

And they told me that
they did not expect queena

To make it through the night.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- This was a very unique case.

We kept a deputy there for
the safety of the victim.

We don't know who did this.

We don't know what they know.

Could it be somebody
that's going to come back

And try to finish her off?

- I remember someone finally
walking into the room

And saying,
"you can see her now."

And my gosh,
that was such a relief.

I expected to walk in
and see a smiling face,

Immediately thinking about
what I would say to her,

How I would comfort her,
we got this.

Let's figure out how
to get you out of here.

My sister was unrecognizable.

Both of her eyes
were completely swollen shut

From being beaten.

Her jaw and nose looked
to have been broken,

And she was not talking.

And she was not really
looking around, either.

She had hundreds of
ant bites all over.

- It was just like a eerie,

Unsettling feeling.

Everyone was just torn
and upset over it.

We were just scared.

- I was asked by the nurses
to help them

Perform a r*pe kit,

And so I asked my mom
to step out

So that I could
do this with queena.

I didn't want my mom to...

Have that memory.

So...This was the first time
that they said the word "r*pe."

[melancholy music]

I didn't know she was r*ped.

I just knew she was beaten up.

And then I had to be
the one to tell my mom.

She was just silent.

I think she, in that moment,
didn't care about anything

But saving queena and
making sure she got better.

♪ ♪

[dark chords]

♪ ♪

[theme music]

- Bloomingdale police
are still on the hunt

For the unknown assailant
who sexually assaulted

A daycare center employee
at knifepoint last June.

- We possibly could
have had a sex offender.

So what I did was
when I got back to the office,

I did a computer check.

There was over
101 registered sex offenders

Living within a
5-mile radius of the library.

That made things
even more difficult,

Because every single one
of these sex offenders

Had to be located,
interviewed,

And their whereabouts
accounted for

On the night
that this happened.

♪ ♪

- She had said a few things
like, "what happened to me?"

She said, "why can't I see?"

And at one point she said,
"did they find him?"

I said, "someone wanted your
purse, and they hit you.

They're going to
look for him now."

And I didn't mention
anything about the r*pe.

♪ ♪

I remember her asking me
if I thought

She would still be able to
make it to prom the next week.

I said, "of course you can
go to prom next week.

I will work magic with makeup,
and you will go.

So don't even worry
about that."

[suspenseful music]

- I wanted to see
who she was talking to,

Maybe if she had met up
with anybody that day

Prior to going to the library.

Nothing came from that.

I learned of the exact times

That she was on the phone
with rachel.

And when the phone
went dead, obviously,

We assumed that that's
when she was attacked.

Had it not been for rachel,

Probably would not
have a male suspect.

- She's like, "oh,
there's a weird-looking guy

Sitting on the bench
over there."

- Not a lot to go on,
but still, it's something.

So we got the details of
the crime out to the media

As fast as we could.

- Another major
development in the case

Of a young woman
r*ped and beaten

Outside
the bloomingdale library.

- It was put out to every
local radio station,

Every local tv station.

- After watching the news,

We were always texting
each other to find out

What the true story was--

Who heard from
the detectives today

And who knows
what they're telling us

Versus what
we see on the news?

- My sister kept waking up,
asking if she was safe.

And at that point,
I wasn't worried

About finding this person.

I was so consumed
with my sister.

♪ ♪

- And they said "your sister's
got something called

Brain injury.

She's fighting for her life.

And the only way
to save her is to

Have some surgery on her brain

And to put her
into a medically-induced coma

So that she does not have
a lot of brain activity."

- "and we can't guarantee
if she'll wake up."

[apprehensive music]

♪ ♪

- She had a skull fracture,
her nose was broken,

And she suffered
several strokes.

- She actually lost her sight
from her being strangled.

♪ ♪

There was a young kid from
bloomingdale high school.

And him and his father

Were actually at the book
drop at about 9:30 that night.

They drove through
the library,

And while they were going
through the book drop,

He said to his father,
"I know that kid

Sitting right there
on the bench."

It was kendrick morris,

A sophomore
at bloomingdale high school.

Initially, we had
morris there at 9:30.

The attack was somewhere
around 10:08 that night.

We removed all of the books
out of the book drop.

We went through
every one of those books,

And we located and interviewed

Everyone that had put
a book in there that night.

And there was one
lady that went through

And dropped off books.

She actually saw
kendrick morris

Still at the library at 10:00.

She even spoke to morris.

She asked him
if he needed a ride.

He told her no, he was
waiting for his mother

To come and pick him up.

Now we have morris
at the library,

You know, eight minutes
before the attack.

♪ ♪

I do a background check
on kendrick morris,

And I find out that
he was actually arrested

For cruelty to animals.

So the next day,
following the incident,

There was a couple
of detectives.

I believe they were there
to possibly interview

Staff members of
the library that morning.

So all of a sudden,
morris walks in the library.

We take him into custody.

He was very mild-mannered,
extremely polite,

And extremely respectful.

♪ ♪

In the back of the library,
underneath the blood spatter,

Laying in the grass,
was a wendy's utensil,

And it was filed to a point.

We compare fingerprints to
prints we found at the scene,

And we have a match.

Morris' fingerprint
was on that utensil.

♪ ♪

- When we heard that
they had found him,

We were just shocked to hear

That he was just a kid himself.

- When I heard
he was 16 years old,

I thought, how could a child
be capable of something

Like this?

There's just no way.

He looked like a kid.

When they took my sister
off of the medication

That was keeping her
medically induced,

They said
she may never wake up.

It's a waiting game,
so let's see.

- That can't be right.
She's going to wake up.

I feel it.
I have so much hope.

And I would set up
all these teddy bears

That she got from her friends,
and I would play her music.

I said, "your favorite song."

And I promise you, she smiled
when that song came on.

And I could not believe it.

I pressed that button
to call the nurse,

And I was like, "my sister's
awake. She smiled."

They said, oh,
that's a reflex thing.

We're sorry.

And I said,
I don't think so.

You know,
I think she's waking up.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- We stayed there with her
for many days just watching,

Looking at her face, seeing if
she's going to open her eyes.

And nothing was happening.

I had to text her
friends and her family,

Just keep everyone updated.

The messages were
"how is she doing?"

"is she talking yet?"
"can she see yet?"

"is she eating yet?"
"is she walking yet?"

It was sad because
I had to say no

To all those questions
every day.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- There's a nearby mcdonald's.

And some detectives
went over there,

And they looked at
the surveillance tape

The night of the incident.

Lo and behold, they have
kendrick morris walking in.

And he walks over
to the walmart.

Puts him not far from the
scene right after the attack.

Every little bit helps,
makes the case

Stronger and stronger.

♪ ♪

- So we had social workers and
caseworkers coming in and out,

Preparing my mom to pick
an acute care facility

To transfer queena
to a nursing home

Where queena would spend
the rest of her days

In a vegetative state.

She's not going to
that nursing home.

I knew that my sister
could hear me.

She started reacting to
things that I would say.

And she started laughing
and she started smiling.

She started opening her eyes

And she started becoming
aware of things,

But she wasn't talking.

- She wasn't able
to walk on her own.

She wasn't able to talk.

She wasn't able to, like,

Make eye contact, eat.

But she would laugh
and she would smile,

And that's how
we were able to know

If she was happy or not
and that she was with us.

- We started googling things
like "brain injury rehab,"

And we figured out that
we could take queena

Out of tampa general
and transfer her

To rehabilitation in sarasota.

- We get his dna,

And of course
we send it to see

If it's a match for foreign
dna that was found in queena.

And we have a match.

[dramatic musical sting]

♪ ♪

We obviously think that queena
had left work that night,

Called rachel.

- She's pulling
into the library

Saying she had to
drop off books.

And as she's driving up to
the drop box, she's like, "oh,

There's a weird-looking
guy sitting

On the bench over there."

She had her books that she was
returning in the back seat.

She opened her door.

- Queena got out of the car.

While she was putting the
books into the book drop,

Somewhere around 10:08 is
when the suspect attacked her.

- I heard her scream,

And she dropped the phone,
and the phone just went dead.

- My sister was
fighting for her life,

Hanging onto a pole
for dear life.

- While he was going through
the beating,

Trying to drag her
back to the library.

- And they had found bloody
fingerprints of her hands

Scraping along a brick wall.

- Banged her off that wall.

When he did, he must have had
that utensil in his pocket,

And it must have fallen
out on the ground.

Queena was unconscious.

She was also sexually
battered.

Strangled her several times.

♪ ♪

After the attack,

He scattered
the contents of the backpack

Throughout the ground.

He walks into mcdonald's.

He orders two happy meals,

And he sits down
and he eats those happy meals

Like nothing in the world
had just happened.

He gets done eating, and he
walks over to the walmart.

And he's shopping.

He's looking at video games,
and he's walking around.

Then we see him use the
phone inside the walmart.

He calls a taxi,
and the taxi takes him home.

- He did not think
that he had to flee.

He had nothing to really hide.

And it was just another
normal night for him.

- On the surface,
you probably would

Not have thought
that this kid was

Capable of doing
what he did.

- You know, he didn't
look like a monster.

But then I looked
at my sister, and I knew

That it was a monster
that did that to her.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- She works hard.

She does a lot of
different therapies.

You have to appreciate just
the small victories with her.

♪ ♪

[heavy chords]

- Morris' dna goes into
the database

As dna from unsolved crimes.

We find out that
morris is a match

To another unsolved
sexual battery

That we had 10 months prior
to him attacking queena.

He entered a daycare center

And he r*ped a 62-year-old
woman at knifepoint.

It was early in the morning.

I assume that she was there
by herself, opening it up.

Morris forced his way in
with a knife.

His face was covered.
Could not tell who it was.

But he was subsequently
charged with that one, too.

♪ ♪

- At the trial,
that was the first time

That I realized that this
person was a monster.

He had grown up a bit.
He had lost a lot of weight.

And he had zero emotion
on his face.

- All of the entire
court proceedings,

Family was very concerned,
very worried.

They wanted to make sure
that things ran smoothly

And they were going to
get justice for queena.

- It was a big decision to, uh,

On whether to bring my
sister to the trial or not.

She always suffered
neurostorms every now and then

That would cause her to
go into a panic attack

And she would cry
and yell out.

And I knew that sitting her
in a courtroom

Talking about what
happened to her

In the same room
as her attacker--

I couldn't do that to her,
even though several people

Were telling us that
it would help the case

Because the jury
would be able to see her.

I didn't want her to
have those memories,

So I attended in her place.

- Going through the trial was
probably one of the hardest

Things that I had done.

Having to relive that moment,

Him being in that room--

It was hard.

- I remember just looking
at him from the side

The whole time
just to see something.

Something.
And there was nothing.

- I remember he wouldn't
even look at us.

Like, he just kind of
kept his head down.

He couldn't even look
any of us in the eyes.

- And I was thinking, ok, this
is a cold-blooded person.

There was a supreme court
rule that came out

That said it was cruel
and unusual to give a minor

A life sentence in prison
for a crime

That did not result in a death.

- Queena's entire life
has been impacted.

She wasn't able to go to prom.

She wasn't able to graduate
with the rest of us.

She wasn't able to go to uf.

Her life ended that night,

And so we felt that he should
have gotten life as well.

- Now, kendrick will be
eligible for parole,

But I doubt very likely
that he'll get out.

When I was at
the resentencing,

There was a doctor,
a psychiatrist,

That interviewed kendrick.

And he asked kendrick,
"what do you think

Would have happened had
you not been arrested?"

And kendrick said to him,

"I would ultimately
have k*lled somebody."

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- She was only 18 years old
when she was attacked.

She's in her 30s now.

She has her entire
life to live.

And we're just
hanging on to the hope

That there's going to be some
sort of medical advancement

That can heal the brain.

- He will never
hear from my sister

That she forgives him,
because she can't talk.

So that, he's just
going to have to live with

For the rest of his life.

But I can say,
"I forgive you."

You know, my mom could say,
"I forgive you."

We can take what
we've been dealt with,

And we can make it
as whole as we can be.

And we can help other families.

We can inspire other women.

- I think it's important
having that precaution of just

Having a friend on the phone.

- If my sister wasn't on
the phone with rachel,

No one would have known
that she was attacked.

She would be laying
in the woods

Behind the library, dead.

- I mean, it's hard for
me to agree with that,

That I saved her life,
because...

♪ ♪

Her life would be
so much different now.

[simon steadman &
tt magruber's "waiting for"]

- ♪ nothing's real ♪

- She had befriended a student
at bloomingdale high school

Who volunteered for us.

And for his senior prom,

He decided that he wanted to
ask my sister to go with him.

Of course,
she wanted to go to prom.

People around the community
started reaching out to us.

"what can we do to help
queena get to prom?"

We met a local seamstress,
and she came

And she took a look
at the prom dress

That my sister
was going to wear.

And she said,
I'm going to modify this.

- ♪ we'll make a fire ♪

- We received a call from the
local harley-davidson club

And they said, "we're going to
escort your van to the prom."

There were hundreds of
bikes on our street.

It was so loud.

It sounded like
a thunderstorm.

So instead of finding the why,
we focus on the what now.

[stirring music]

[phone line trilling]

- Hey, it's queena.
I'm not here right now.

Just leave a message,
and I'll call you back.

- That's the only thing I have
left to be able to hear her.

I hope that never
gets wiped out.