Homicide Hunter: Never Give Up (2022) - full transcript

A cold case is a term

that I don't really like

because it brings
the connotation that nobody

is paying attention to it,

which just isn't true.

It's an unsolved case.

I recall getting
the old VHS tape

out of evidence.

What really stuck out
to me in the Krashoc case...

...was actually watching
that on the screen...

...You see
the snow-covered mountains



in the background.

There's snow
in the parking lot.

There's a dumpster
just next to the building.

And then right beside
the dumpster,

there's the body.

I remember Darlene's hair
moving in the breeze

with her naked body laying out
in a parking lot

with a bunch of snow.

For me,
that's when the brutality hit.

The way she was treated
and killed,

you knew you had
a monster on your hand.

I was a homicide detective
with CSPD for nine years,

and the last three years,

it was strictly assigned
to cold cases.



I recall getting
the Krashoc case

September of 2016.

We knew it was different
than the other case

we had seen before.

Darlene Krashoc's case file
was significant in its length.

The pages were
in the thousands easily.

An immense amount
of work had gone
into that case

with phenomenal amounts
of physical evidence.

It never ended for 32 years.

Cases that
either Lieutenant Kenda

touched as a supervisor
or as a detective

30 years later,

looking through
this case file,

Jim Isham and I knew
that there was no stone
left unturned.

The man is, uh,
you know, a giant.

I worked
in my father's business

when I got out of college
and I wound up hating it.

And I said I wanna be
a policeman.

So I applied
to several departments

and Colorado Springs was

the first one
that made an offer.

My wife, Cathy, and I,
we took Horace Greely's advice

and we went west.

And it was wonderful.

So I was very busy
being a policeman.

I didn't like it, I loved it.
I would've done it for free.

It's always been
my greatest concern about

my career that I did not solve
8% of my cases,

of my 387 cases.

Victims who never
got justice in court.

But the only case that has
no statute of limitations
is homicide.

The most important part
of homicide investigation

is to never, ever give up.

That early morning
was about 5:20 in the morning.

We're probably about almost
an hour away from
our shift being over.

It was a bitter,
bitter cold day.

I had made
the decision,

"Let's check some
of the local bars,

make sure we don't have any,

you know, body passed out
in their cars
in this freezing weather."

So we turn to the back,
behind this establishment,

and we both saw something
laying next to the dumpster

behind one
of these businesses.

Is that
a mannequin?

And as we were closer,

we saw that it was a female.

That's a real person, uh,
and when you see that,

it takes you back
for a minute.

Of course, they showed
you horrific pictures of

people that had been shot,
or stuff like that,
in training academy.

But it's different when
you come across it yourself.

I don't think
anyone's ready for that.

And at that time,
dispatch probably woke

every one of them up when
I came over the air and said,

"We have a D.B.",
meaning a dead body.

It's about 5:25
in the morning,

and the phone rings.

And it's
the PD Communications Center.

So they had patrol officers
on the scene

of a discovered body at
the rear of the Korean Club.

In 1987, I'd been
in the police department
for 14 years.

I was a sergeant in Homicide.

It's completely
and totally unpredictable.

There is no routine.

Every case

is absolutely unique.

The CSPD Homicide unit,
they were the blue-ribbon,

um,
homicide unit in my opinion.

The sergeant on scene

happened to be Joe Kenda,

and I appreciated
his dedication.

He really wanted
to do right by the victims.

This is one
of the most violent crimes
I've ever seen.

I've seen many things,
not many this extreme.

What always sticks
with me in cases is

the crime scene itself,
the appearance of the victim.

The images of that never stop,
never go away.

We talk about words like,

uh, it was horrible
and it was terrifying,

but you don't really
understand the meaning

of that until you're

knee-deep in
the human perversion

that is rape and murder.

The body was nude,

other than her jeans were
on one of her ankles.

A shoe was laying off
to the side.

There was a diamond ring
on the ring finger

of her left hand.

Single stone, small.
But it has value.

It isn't removed.

This isn't robbery
that goes south somehow.

So that eliminates one motive
almost immediately.

Looking at her face,

she has three coat hangers

made into a bridle
you would see on a horse.

My God.

At the back of the head,

these wires
are twisted together

to form a handle where
someone can control

the movement of her head.

The wires cut into the joints
of her cheeks

and into the flesh
of her face.

It's very disturbing.

Very disturbing.

She had bite marks
on her body.

One of the nipples
had been bitten off.

I was really amazed
by the savagery

committed by someone who has
all been reduced to a hyena.

Incisor wounds from his teeth
into a dead body.

Removal of a nipple
by biting it off.

Savage crime.

It wasn't a random, quick,

impulsive action.

Someone that had
a monster inside him

had spent considerable time
torturing her.

The body looked so cold

and so alone.

First off, you gotta
figure out who this victim is.

In this particular case,
lo and behold,

her driver's license
was laying on the ground

next to the body.

It turns out
that she's an active soldier.

She, uh, belonged to a unit
out at Fort Carson.

Colorado Springs in 1987

was a military town.

So we know that she's
Darlene Krashoc

and she's 20 years old.

She's active duty military.

She's young,
has her whole life
in front of her,

and somebody took it from her
in the worst possible way.

But it puzzled me why
he would display the ID.

It's as if he's taunting us.

Here's who she is,

but you don't know who I am,
do you?

Charles Green is
our crime scene technician

Technician Green was
a very competent guy.

Charlie was a meticulous
evidence collector,

photographer.

He was so careful
and so attentive

to every little detail.

There was three cigarettes

on the asphalt
next to the body.

It made me wonder why

they were so close
to the body.

Is it an employee sneaking
outside for a smoke break,

or is our perpetrator
admiring his work?

So when we collected
this evidence,

We did so with
the best possible methods.

Rubber gloves, masks,
everything,

in order to preserve it
for subsequent identification.

We see tire tracks
right next to this body...

...which indicates the body
transported to that location.

There was no question
in my mind this crime
occurred somewhere else.

Where did it occur?
We don't know.

The question is who is
responsible for this death?

Where is he now?

He's a ghost.

He's a puff of smoke.

He's a shadow in the night.

How am I gonna
figure this out?

"After Sgt. Kenda arrived,

closer examination was made
of the body.

The body is that
of a White female

laying partially on her back.

There were
three cigarette butts

located on the ground.

These were each picked up

and a sample of the soil
under the body."

The evidence they collected
had been packaged,

categorized just like
we would today,

and what that does
is preserves that evidence.

If we didn't have the evidence
that they collected in 1987,

the case goes nowhere.

So I'd leave
that crime scene area

and I wanna go talk to
the people in the Korean Club.

Could this have
occurred inside the bar

and the victim dumped outside?

That's one of our first things
to look at because

of the location of the body.

So we show
this ID photograph

to all the employees.

No one's ever seen her before.

But the bartender does provide
one useful piece

of information in terms of
timeline for our crime scene.

He's able to say
he was the last person out.

It was right around 2:00.

He didn't notice anything.

5:20 in the morning,
that's when the victim

was first identified.

That narrows our timeline
down to 3 hours and change.

That's important.

Darlene, where were you
for those 3 hours?

And with whom?

When we got to the morgue
and the body thawed,

the violence became
even worse.

The autopsy performed
on Darlene told us a lot.

Not only was she beaten, uh,
she was sexually assaulted.

She was sodomized.

She strangled
on the wires around her neck.

Fighting for air to breathe,

unable to do so.

That's what actually
killed her.

You look at this
and you think,

My...Who are
we looking for here?

The cold temperatures can trap
liquid that comes
from a perpetrator.

Seminal fluid
or other such things...

...that's recoverable
when it melts

and drains onto the table.

So all those things
can be useful.

Most homicides in
the United States occur

between people
who know each other.

So you have to find out
who Darlene Krashoc is

before you can possibly
find out may wanted her dead.

I answered
the door.

It was a sergeant
from the Army.

And he said, uh...

...your daughter Darlene
has been killed.

And I said, "Killed?"

I said, "What happened?",
and he said, "A homicide."

And I said, "A homicide?

Somebody killed her?"

At that point,
there was disbelief.

They had it wrong. Um...

There was no conflicts
going on, so...

She shouldn't be dead.
She couldn't be dead.

Quite honestly,

I was a basket case.

Nobody wants to see
their child go.

And then it's like, "Why?
What happened?

Course,
nobody had any answers.

When reality really set in,

your world just fell apart.

My world fell apart.

It left an empty hole
in the middle of you.

Mr.
and Mrs. Krashoc come in

to deal with the loss
of their child.

Darlene was born in Baltimore,
Maryland.

She was a good kid.

She was very outgoing.

She was very caring.

It was more than mother
and daughter.

You know,
we were kinda best friends.

She was a tomboy.

She wanted to work
on big trucks.

Darlene wanted
to join the military.

She had in her head
her dream of wanting
to drive tractor trailers.

So she joined to get the Army
to teach her.

Her serving...
Of course it made me proud.

We asked them
about something
we noticed at the crime scene.

That Darlene was wearing,
what looked to us,
like an engagement ring.

Did they have
any knowledge of that?

Oh, yes. They did.

She was actually married once

to a young man who was
in the Army.

A Glen Gerringer.

I really didn't know
anything about him.

She and Glen hooked up
and decided to get married.

They could
live off post and...

You know, which I
didn't agree with, but, uh,

she was gonna do
whatever she wanted
to do anyhow.

19, 20, I mean...

You don't know
what you wanna do.

I mean, come on.
You think you do,
but you don't.

They were
not compatible for each other.

They filed for divorce
and her divorce
would have been final,

uh, a few days after
she was killed.

Now, divorced husbands
always intrigue me.

We already know that
whoever did this crime
hates women.

Sometimes a divorcee
can hate their ex-wife.

Really hate her.

So this young man has emerged.

He's at the top of our list.

Gerringer was also a soldier
out of Fort Carson.

The benefit
of working with Fort Carson

was the immediate access
of their soldiers.

If we needed to talk
with somebody,

CID, or their military police,
would go pick those people up

and make them
readily available to us.

Well, Glen. Who are you?

How'd you feel
about this divorce?

Were you angry enough
to kill her over it?

You can always tell
someone who is lying
and trying to look emotional.

Trying to fake
as if they're sobbing.

But that wasn't Gerringer.
He was genuine.

He was very emotional
about the loss
of Darlene Krashoc.

He goes on to explain

that even though
they were divorced,
they were friends.

He was asked were he was
at the night before.

He's got a new girlfriend
in his life.

He was with her all night
the night before.

They hadn't seen
each other in months.

Totally cooperative with us,
has an alibi.

We took hair samples,
we took blood, and we
looked at his teeth.

They in no way match
the bite mark evidence
we have from the victim.

We move on.

So who is Mr. X?

We still don't know.

Everybody we talked to,
we took a blood sample
from and preserved it

to create a database
of biological samples.

The process to do that
was complicated.

And it was expensive.

And I argued, let's do this.

And it may never come
to anything, but it could
come to everything.

So we did it.

So everybody we spoke
to in this case,
I had their blood.

The storage of that evidence,
over time, so that the DNA
doesn't deteriorate,

and could still be used
for comparison,
30 years later,

was phenomenal.

In 1987, DNA was really not
even part of our conversation.

The first DNA case was
in England in 1986.

It was something
that we thought,

"Wow, that sounds pretty cool.
I wonder if someday
we'll be able to use it."

But then,
fast-forward 30 years.

We knew Darlene
was an active duty soldier

stationed here at Fort Carson.

So I became in contact
with a CID agent.

And that was agent,
Jessica Veltri.

As a special agent
for Army CID,

I investigate felony-level
crimes where the Army
has an interest.

And, as part of that role,

I requested some cold cases
to take a look at.

I was then introduced
to Detective Isham

and Detective Somosky,
who were also working
on the cold case team

with Colorado Springs
Police Department.

There was a lot of evidence,
from the victim's clothing...

To cigarette butts found
near the body.

The bite marks.

The hanger, the ligature.

And so they actually got
the DNA tested
and uploaded to the system.

Initially, the first piece
of DNA evidence

that had the best profile
was a cigarette butt.

Well, is that cigarette butt
related to my crime scene?

Or is it just trash
that was in the parking lot?

The lab examiner was able
to confirm that
the DNA profile

on the cigarette butt
matched a DNA profile

that was all over
the victim's clothes.

The phrase "Unknown
Individual Number 1"

came from the DNA lab report,

where they identified
a profile and it didn't match
any other samples

that had been submitted
to the lab.

And so then we knew,
with confidence, okay,
this was the right guy.

It's just who is he?
And where is he?

I get a call
from CID.

New information comes forward.

There is a female soldier
whose name is Carolyn Smith.

She's active duty military.

And she's sitting
in an interrogation room,
awaiting my arrival.

I get there and start speaking
with Carolyn Smith.

This girl is Darlene's
best friend.

We are well-aware
that 20-year-old girls

tend to bump their gums
with their friends.

What can Smith tell us
about Darlene and her
associates?

She had spoken to Darlene
about 2 o'clock

on the afternoon
before she went missing.

She indicated then,
Darlene was gonna go out

to Shuffles nightclub
with a couple of guys

from her unit,
there at Fort Carson.

Shuffles bar had a dance floor, music.
And a young crowd.

Darlene says, "Sgt. Lord
is gonna take me."

That's her sergeant
who's in charge
of her platoon.

And she says another fellow,
Tim Robinson,
is gonna go with them.

So Lord and Robinson,
they're probably the last ones
to see her alive.

The thing I always say
of CID, God bless them,

they don't mess around.

The civilian authorities
say he might be involved
in a murder,

they will put your nose
in the dirt, and handcuff you,

and drag you
from wherever you are
to an interrogation room.

And CID, in typical fashion,
whips them up in 30 minutes.

Lord and his friend, Robinson,

obviously know
that Darlene Krashoc is dead.

Everybody
in Fort Carson knows.

Why wouldn't they come forward
with the fact that they were
with her that night before?

So when I walked in
to talk to Erik Lord,
I took his handcuffs off.

I said, "We're not gonna need
these, are we Erik?"

"No, sir." I said,
"Okay, let's get them off."

He'd look at ya,
and you could tell
he was in charge.

Joe Kenda asked us
very pointed,
very specific questions

trying to find out
whereabouts,
who were we with.

I mean, just about
every single detail

he could have imagined,
that day.

I was smoking
like a freight train.
I was nervous.

We left work, and Darlene says
she wanted to go out
and have some fun.

And so, I said, "Yeah, sure."
You know.

"Uh, I'll take you
to B Street."

Robinson was dancing
with Darlene,

and, you know,
was having a good time.

Darlene danced with a couple
of the guys in the bar,

and I said, "Okay.
It's time to go."

And she said,
"No, I'm not leaving."

I said, "Yeah, you are,
'cause I'm you're ride.
I'm responsible for you."

And we kinda got into it
a little bit.

And there was a guy
at the bar that she
was drinking with.

Darlene doesn't introduce him,
so he doesn't get a name.

But Lord describes him
as a young GI,
doesn't know him,

never seen him before.

You can usually pick
a soldier out.

Just by the, you know,
the way they walk.

By the way
they carry themselves.

And he remembers
looking at this guy,

and he thought he was
unusual-looking.

Okay, what does that mean?

The person that I saw
had beady eyes, you know?

It's very hard to translate
someone's impression
of a body part

when you really don't know
what he's talking about.

What means beady eyes
to him may mean
something else to you.

She says,
"He'll give me a ride."

I said, "We have to make
formation."

You know,
there's no way around it.

You know,
and it was getting late.

And she says,
"No, don't worry about it."

"I'll be there."
Last time I ever saw her.

We, of course, considered
that from the very beginning,

that the killer in this
process is probably military.

That's the most likely
scenario.

To think that, even then,
they knew that it was
possibly a soldier,

um, so somebody who
you're supposed
to be able to trust,

um, and work alongside with.

As a special agent
for Army CID, I didn't want
to give up on that.

In 2017, the technology
called phenotyping,

that was the most advanced
DNA technology we could do
at that time.

Early in 2017, I came across
this company called Parabon.

And I saw that they had
the ability to take DNA

and identify, with a certain
probability, what color eyes
this person might have,

what skin tone
they might have.

We learned when we got
the phenotype,

the individual that the DNA
belonged to was a white male.

Northern, western European
descent.

Brown hair, hazel eyes.

The evolution
I was so fondly looking
forward to,

has in fact happened.

The ghost is alive.

We have Sergeant Lord,

the last man to see
Darlene Krashoc alive.

At the time, Erik was trying
his best to convince this girl
to come out of this bar.

It wasn't enough.
He got tired of that,
and he left.

And then, uh,
next day she didn't show up.

And... You know, I was...

I said, "Okay, maybe...
She'd been drinking."

I said, "Let's give her
some time."

And then we had found out
that there was a girl found.
A girl's body was found.

I said, "Oh, my God!
That's it. That's her."

And, literally just...
Whole world just caved in.

Erik had some degree of survivor guilt.
It's common.

People blame themselves
for something they didn't do,

that resulted in terrible
things happening to someone.

You know, the fact that, um,
I was Darlene's ride
that night,

and I left her behind, I...

Um.

I should've pushed her
in the car.

And why I didn't.

You know, it's, uh...
Hard to deal with.

One little motion,
I could've changed...

I wouldn't be here right now
talking to you.

Met a lot of people
I didn't want to meet.

And in this case,
that much rage,
it's not unlikely

that the suspect also has
some kind of marks
or injuries on them.

So when we're interviewing
people, we're gonna ask
and we're gonna look

to see if they have
any kind of marks on them.

And then they said,
"Take your shirt off."

He's perfectly clean,
doesn't have a mark on him.

We still take blood and hair
from him, with his consent.

They looked at my teeth.
Actually took
bite impressions.

It was very involved.

The story
Erik Lord tells
is perfectly reasonable.

The best person to confirm
that story is Tim Robinson.

Because he was there too.

So I go next door,
to where Mr. Robinson

is being interrogated
by somebody else.

Tim and Erik provided
very consistent information

about their association
with Darlene on that night.

Everything
is going along swimmingly
in this interrogation.

Then we asked him
to take off his shirt.

And he is covered
in scratches.

He has them on his back,
his chest, and his arm.

Mr. Robinson,

you suddenly have
some serious explaining to do.

He's got scratches
all over him.

Well, Timmy,
where'd you get those?

He's one of the last
to see her.
He's got some marks.

This is starting to look
pretty good.

Robinson gets very upset.

He knows the Army has a habit
of hitting you over the head
with a sledgehammer

when you get accused
of a crime.

I looked at him and asked him,
"Can you explain the scratches
and marks all over you?"

And Robinson said,
"I know this girl,

and I went to see her
that night and all these marks
came from her."

Well...

Something you don't hear
everyday, but there are people
who do that sort of thing.

He's in a relationship
with a gal who gets
a little physical.

His story panned out.

I still take hair
and blood samples from him.

And I ask to look
at his teeth.

When I do look at his teeth,

they in no way match
the bite mark
evidence we have.

So Mr. Robinson has an alibi.

At this point
in the investigation,

when your leads
are just running out

and you don't have anything,
you start to reach.

In this
particular case,

the victim is in a nightclub
involving perhaps as many
as 100 people.

It's a very difficult thing
to analyze, after the fact.

To think that
a bartender was going
to remember an individual

that just walked up,
grabbed a drink,
went out and danced.

Trying to identify
an individual at a bar
is a very daunting task.

As a homicide
detective, you engage
in a process of elimination.

This was 1987. No cellphones.

No surveillance cameras.

This is old-fashioned
gumshoe detective work,

relying on people's
limited memories.

People who had been drinking
for six or seven hours.

It makes this
very, very difficult.

The case file
is every document

associated in any way
to the event in question.

All police reports,
the autopsy report,

laboratory examination
results, the list goes on.

Anyone can pick up
and learn everything
that needs to be known

about this investigation.

That is a case file.

The 30-year anniversary
of Darlene's death
was on March 17, 2017.

With the DNA composite sketch,
we got a reward approved
for $10,000

for any information leading
to the identity, arrest,
and conviction

for the person responsible
for the death of Darlene.

The Parabon snapshot...

Can give us predictions.

Ethnicity, race,
hair and eye color.

The first they one they give
you is at age 22,

and then you can do
a photo enhancement

for, uh, the same person
at age 50.

That's really when it
kinda opened the door.

It's the 26th
of March,

1987.

Nine days in.

After all of this frustration,
all of this effort,

that's gotten us nowhere,

suddenly, out of the blue,
a lightning bolt arrives.

Army CID, they call me,
they say, "We have this
individual in custody,

his name is Brian Jackson.

He is charged with some
sexual assault offenses."

And he says that he's
responsible for the death
of our victim.

Well, hallelujah,
there is a God.

We're on our way.

When CID starts a little bit
of their investigation,

we find out that, yes,
he has a truck.

We believe that she was
transported in a truck.

The Army has
the ability to search

people's vehicles
without their consent.

We don't. But they do.

They searched his truck.

Guess what?
There's a coat hanger
in the truck.

We have
physical evidence
that could match

what was used in this crime.

We have him making
these statements.

He's active duty military.

He's charged
with sexual assault.

Everything says the stars
are coming into alignment.

That this very well
is our guy.

I go there.

And everybody and his brother
begins to show up.

The Staff Judge Advocate
General for Fort Carson
is there.

The Commanding General
of the 4th Infantry Division
is there.

The Chief Judge of the court
is there.

And of course,
all heads turn towards me.

When I first meet
Brian Jackson, he's well-aware
of how much trouble he's in.

He's gonna be a nervous wreck.

We'll see where this goes.

Brian Jackson says
he's responsible for the death
of Darlene Krashoc.

He has some
promising attributes.

He's in custody
for sexual assault.

This is
a sexual assault crime.

That fits.

He's made
some veiled statements

about how
he's probably responsible

for Darlene Krashoc's
death.

Does that add up
to proof beyond
a reasonable doubt?

No.

It rises to the level
of further inquiry.

So, Jackson,
he's been in the Army
12 years.

He's an infantry guy.

He is married.

Jackson is
currently charged

with two counts
of sexual assault

against female soldiers
in his company.

He is in the trouble
of his life.

That can lead people
to say things that
otherwise aren't true.

Looking for leverage,
looking for a way out,
looking for something.

Turn out, Mr. Jackson
is precisely that person.

Lots of things about him
that he needs to explain,
for sure.

Let's talk about it.

"Do you know
Darlene Krashoc?"

"Well, no, I don't
really know her."

"But you say
you are responsible
for her death.

Why would you say that?"

"Well, I just think
if I would have been there..."

And he wanders off
in this weird, sort of,
discussion.

And you begin to realize
that this guy is trying to use

the murder
of Darlene Krashoc

to show him mercy
in his situation.

Had he been at the bar,
he would have prevented

Darlene Krashoc
from being killed.

And because she was killed,
he feels responsible for that.

Oh, please.

What's his alibi?
Where was he at the night
that this happened?

Well, the alibi
just totally threw him
out of...

Out of the water there.

He couldn't have
killed Darlene.

He wasn't even near
Shuffles that night.

Mr.
Jackson is not the sharpest knife in the drawer,

and he's reaching
for any straw that
he can get hold of

to provide him some mercy
from the system.

We take blood,
we take hair.

We also look
at his teeth.

His teeth no way match
her bite marks.

He's not the guy we want
for Darlene Krashoc.

He's just a guy.

So, this great feeling
of euphoria

has turned into
yet another disappointment.

That's why
a murder investigation
can drive you crazy.

It's so good, and then,
suddenly, it's so bad.

Uh, you're back
to square one again.

And at this point,
we don't have a whole lot
of other direction to go.

You add parts
to that investigative file
every day.

It begins with page one.

And before you know it,
you're opening page 401.

Despite our efforts,
despite everything we've done,

we have been
unable to identify
any other suspects.

We are at a dead end.

At some point,
you have to say,

"For now, this investigation
cannot move forward

'cause there is no place
for it to move.

It is now an inactive
homicide investigation."

Nobody wants to quit.
We want to get the answers.

I felt I had done
everything in my power

to find out who killed her.

And I didn't do it.

I didn't find out.

There's a price
you pay for that.

Nightmares.

All sorts of fun things.

But reality sets in.

There are other mothers
that have lost loved ones
that need our attention.

Krashoc was
an active-duty soldier
stationed at Fort Carson.

No suspect
was identified.

You have to tell
the parents that.

Ugly business.

Betty had a hard time.

She fell into
a deep state of depression.

Put her under
doctor's care.

Like any other mother,
she would just, uh...

cry. Cried a lot.

I just had to know.
I want to know.

Find him.
How hard could it be?

You know, that's me,
and that's any parent.

You have to understand
their position.

They're in
an emotional nightmare that
they can't wake up from,

that someone like this
is walking around loose,

and we don't know
who he is.

We have no idea
who he is.

But people who commit crimes
forget something

that's extremely important.

The police do not forgive,
and they do not forget.

And some day, your knee
is gonna touch the ground.

And on that day,

a policeman's
gonna be standing over you

to handcuff you
and remind you of your past.

That's the day
I always look forward to.

We are going to identify
the ghost.

In the case
of Darlene Krashoc,

there is no one left
to investigate.

I would come into work
early every morning.

I'd make a cup of coffee.

I'd walk to the doorway
of the cold-case library.

And I'd look at every book.

And then, I would
beat myself up for being
a dumb

who doesn't know
who killed those people.

Then I'd go sit down
and start looking over reports

of the current
homicide cases.

I carried on
after we closed
the active status

of the Krashoc case

until 1996, September 1st.

Then I returned.

Life goes on,
retirements happen.

Things in the country change,
new Presidents are elected.

But you never forget.
I never did.

And I was
still always hopeful

that someday
something would
come to light

in the Krashoc case
by some method or means.

And resurrection
could be had finally.

You know, I just felt like
nobody was doing anything.

I just felt like
everybody had forgotten her.

But, uh, I've got
boxes of e-mails.

I would e-mail
every detective.

I'd type up letters.

I even sent letters
to the President of
the United States.

You never forget,
and it never goes away.

Has he ever
done it again?

Has he hurt
somebody else's child?

Has he destroyed
somebody else's family?

Betty, bless her heart,

she was running
interference for Darlene

and making sure
that it was getting done.

We decided
we'd come back to Colorado.

We did flyers.

We had T-shirts made up
with her picture on it
and hats.

I even wrote a poem.

"In the vision of man,
but it's just deceit.

For there's a demon
on your streets.

You may know his face.
I know it well.

He left behind
some clues to tell.

I'm only waiting
for the clock to chime,

for soon, he'll pay
for his heinous crime.

I know the secret,
I know the truth."

The most important thing
you can take away
from a crime scene

is the physical evidence.

Well, the crime scene
investigators,

even back then,
had specialized training

in collecting
that evidence.

Now we have the benefit
of video and technology

and getting into people's
social media and cell phone
accounts,

that actually help
solve cases.

But Joe Kenda, especially,
came from an era

where you had
to find evidence.

Those guys
are absolute heroes.

At the initial onset
of the investigation,

they collected
all the evidence

maybe, at that time,
for blood typing

and to see
what the future might bring.

It is fascinating,
because they didn't know

what they were
preserving it for.

Um, it just goes to show

the foresight
and the dedication

to, to advancements
that were coming.

And knowing that
we still had that evidence,
I just, I felt very confident

that there was a chance
that this case
could get solved.

The suspect's
DNA profile had been
entered in CODIS,

a nationwide, uh, system.

And as of 2018,
there had been no matches.

Which told me that
since 1987, if no one's DNA

had been
entered into the system,
it was very unlikely,

and getting less likely
by the second,

that that was
ever gonna happen.

It blew me away
that even though we had

a really solid DNA profile
in the national DNA index,

we still didn't
have a suspect.

After the phenotyping
was done,

we got a visual depiction
of what the shape of the face
may look like.

Social media
just blew up.

We were getting calls
from other countries,

based on seeing stuff
on Facebook,

saying,
"Maybe I know this person."

Social media brought us
tons of leads.

Unfortunately,
not a lot of them
really led anywhere.

You know,
it's disappointing.

That composite sketch,
I had it posted on my desk.

Just, I stared at it
every day.

Like, who is this guy,
where is he now, is he alive?

I remember
The New York Times article

about a cold case
that was solved
with genetic genealogy.

So I started to follow
how it was being applied
in law enforcement.

With the popularity of people
testing their own DNA

to find out
where they're from...

more and more people
are entering their DNA
into these databases.

What forensic
genealogists can do

is start to trace back
that family tree,

and see what ancestors
they have in common,

and the law enforcement
can, kind of, work with
the genealogists.

They find out
where the DNA intersects

between this family member
with a shared DNA

and the individual
that you're trying
to identify.

I reached out to Parabon,

who had previously done
the phenotyping.

So, the genealogy,
it was new for their company,

and they said,
"We'll run it through
the database once a week.

And if get something
that looks workable,
we'll reach out."

It was probably
about a year.

And that whole time,
I'm just like,
"I know it's coming."

It was 2019
when I got the call.

"We've got
a possible match,

a familial match,
um, with the suspect.

It equates to about
a third cousin."

And so this is something
that we can work.
It's workable.

Agent Veltri
called me and said,

"We have a match
to the unknown individual
number one

in Darlene Krashoc's case."

I remember,
I looked at Detective Somosky,

and I just told him.
I said, "I think
we got our guy."

And he said,
"Are you sure?"

And I said, "I'm not sure,
but the science is sure."

The very next
communication was,

"Hey, we'd like to brief you
on the results."

I mean, I remember
being in the office.

Jim was on the line.

I had a sign on my door,
like, "Do not disturb."

Um, and we're just
all sitting there.

For 32 years at CSPD,

I've been trying
to identify a ghost,

and, finally,
after advances in science,

willingness to pursue,

that ghost that's out there
running around loose...

he has a name.

This is what
we've been looking for.

Michael Whyte.

Michael Whyte.

Michael Whyte was
tentatively identified
from the genetic genealogy.

His name is
Michael David Whyte.

We'd never seen the name
Michael Whyte come up
in that case report.

I'd never seen
the name before.

All the people
that we interviewed,

the suspect's name
never surfaced.

2,000 pages...

and Michael David Whyte
never appears.

We never heard of him,
nor did anyone else.

Who is this guy?

In doing some research,
we confirm that he was
a soldier.

He was assigned
to Fort Carson.

During that time...

and public records
did confirm, he lived

not far from where
Darlene's body was found.

He has
zero criminal record.

He got
a parking ticket once.

For all intents and purposes,
he is Mr. Boring Suburbia.

We need to know for sure.

We need
to surveil this guy.

We knew
that he was stable.

Married, with a home
in an affluent suburb
in Denver.

And working in
a pretty good job

in the telecommunications
industry.

We needed to get
ahold of DNA to confirm

that he was
the person matching

unknown suspect
number one's DNA.

A fugitive team
did sit up on Michael Whyte.

These are guys
that do this for a living.

So you'd never know
you're getting followed.

They just keep
tailing off, trading off.

They're good at it.

So they go,
and they start
surveilling him.

And this particular day,
he's out running errands.

But he pulls into
a hamburger place

to get lunch.

He sits there,
he enjoys his lunch.

And he has
a red Solo cup.

He drinks from the cup.

The cup is now the focus.

That's gonna have
his saliva on that cup.

What's he gonna
do with it?

He gets up and leaves.

So we didn't
need a warrant.

He technically has
no privacy rights
to that piece of trash

he's just discarded.

Some agents
came down from Fort Carson

after, uh,
Agent Veltri called them.

Jim and I transferred
the evidence to them.

The scientists
working the case
communicated with us,

"We're gonna work this
24x7 until it's...
Until it's resolved."

There were
some tense moments,

some dallying,
if you will.

But again, you know,
witnesses lie,

I've even had
victims lie,

but one thing
I've found in 32 years
of law enforcement,

the evidence doesn't lie.

The results from
the DNA came back in,

I honestly want to say
two-and-a-half
to three weeks,

which is, kind of,
unheard of in DNA cases.

That it was a confirmed match
to unknown person number one.

My, my, my.

It is him
without question.

He is the only guy
who deposited his DNA

on and inside the victim
in this case.

We were now in a position,
after only 32 years,

to arrest Michael David Whyte
for the murder and rape
of Darlene Krashoc.

It's time
to go to jail, Michael.

I remember,
it was June 13th, 2019.

One of those days,
it's kind of hard to forget
as a law enforcement officer,

made numerous arrests
in my career,

this one, kind of,
rises to the top.

I called Agent Veltri
and said,

"The warrant's been issued
for Michael Whyte's arrest."

I wanted to give them
the opportunity to be there,

because without them,
we couldn't have had
that result.

It was insane.
We hadn't eaten,
we hadn't slept.

And then,
next thing you know,

we're in the car,
and we're heading to Denver.

We met at a park
in Thornton, Colorado,

and a plan was devised.

The fugitive units and myself
were to make contact

with Mr. Whyte
at his residence.

We knew that there was
at least one other adult
living in the house,

identified as his spouse,
and we didn't want to put
anyone at risk.

You know, this guy
is a trained soldier.

You know,
someone is not a threat

until they're faced
with being arrested

for a crime the committed
30 years earlier.

It was a matter of knocking on the door, asking for Mr.
Whyte.

After he identified himself,

our fugitive team told him
that we did have
arrest warrants

from the Colorado Springs
Police Department.

It was, kind of,
a textbook arrest.

There was no fighting,
no screaming.

He said, "Okay,"
while he was transported in.

After the arrest, I went in
with Detective Jim Isham

to speak to
Michael Whyte's wife.

His current wife
was just taken off guard.

She said Mr. Whyte
had never laid a finger
on her.

There was no violence.

She was
truly shocked.

She described Michael Whyte
as her hero.

She told us that she had
stage four esophageal cancer.

And that
he was her lifeline.

He was everything to her.

And so that was sad.
That was really sad to hear.

And also, just confusing.

'Cause this is also
the same person

who brutally murdered
Darlene Krashoc 32 years ago.

A killer
looks like everybody else.

What does he look like?

Like the guy behind you
at the grocery store.

There is no profile,
there is no appearance.

There is none of that.

We went
to the police station

to get ready
for the interview.

I observed the interview
from another room.

And that was, like,
the first time I really
laid eyes on him.

We knew that, uh,
you know, this is someone

who might want
to try to tell his side
of the story.

Might try
to explain it away.

Person that
committed this crime

didn't make it
through life,

uh, just settling for
whatever got handed to him.

He did waive
his right to speak with us,

so we started
the interview.

I remember him
making a comment,

"So old cases
that haven't been solved?"

This is a well-educated,
upper middle class man

who absolutely knows
what he's done
or what he hasn't done.

Um, and you don't get sat
in front of a couple
of detectives,

uh, without knowing
exactly what you're there for.

And I remember sliding
Darlene's picture
on the table.

And after a big gulp
from the water,

he looked at it

with a pained expression
before stating that...

...she looks
like his ex-wife.

And he said,
"But I know it's not her."

Once I showed the picture,
it seemed like he wanted

to disassociate himself
with the table, the picture.

Once I laid
Darlene's photograph
on the table,

his demeanor,
kind of, changed.

It was definitely
an eerie feeling,
watching the interview.

And I do remember,
specifically, him saying...

"I had sex
with lots of women,

but I never killed
any of them."

He denied ever seeing her.

Or even knowing
about the murder,

which, to me,
is unbelievable.

And at that time,
he opted to invoke
his right to remain silent.

And I remember standing up
to leave the interview room,

and he looked at me,
and he said,

"How do I defend myself
against this?"

I just thought to myself,

if someone would accuse me
of this heinous crime,

and I was
completely innocent,

I wouldn't have the attitude
of sipping my water

asking,
"How do I defend myself?"

Before leaving the room,
the cops get impressions
of Whyte's teeth.

However, it's 30-plus years
since this murder happened.

Teeth impressions
aren't very meaningful
over that period of time.

He had
a pained expression
on his face.

You could tell that
he was fighting back tears.

It was almost a combination
of extreme anguish
and disbelief.

To me, it was
the face of someone
who worked hard

to prevent this day
from ever occurring,
and here it was happening.

I'm very proud
of the detectives
in the Cold Case Unit,

Isham and Somosky.

They took an oath.

They did what they said
they would do.

It was not until after
we attempted the interview,

I made the call
to the family.

You have
the defendant in custody,

then you tell
the family.

And Somosky was privileged
to make it.

Something you don't often
get to do.

I answered the phone.

He said, "Paul?"
And I said, "Yes."

And he said, uh,
"Jo Somosky."

And it was like,
"Well, hello, detective.
How are you doing?"

He said,
"I'm doing extremely well."

So, I asked him
to please go to where
his wife was.

He said,
"Would you get her
next to you?

I've got something
I want to tell you.

And I want you both
to hear it at the same time."

Paul said, "Come here.
You've got to hear this."

He said,
"I waited 32 years
to tell you this."

And I told them,

"The Army CID
and Colorado Springs
Police Department

have made an arrest
for the homicide

of their daughter,
Darlene Krashoc."

And that's when we heard
they've made an arrest.

They got him.

And I know all they could hear
was me screaming.

That was the best day
of my life.

They got that sucker.

I found out.

I was asleep
on the couch.

My wife came,
she woke me up,

I'm like,
"What's going on?
Why you waking me up?"

And she says,
"They found him!
They found him!"

I said, "Who?
Who did they find?"

And she holds up
the telephone.

My eyes focus on him.
Oh, my God.

That's him,
with beady eyes, you know?

Those eyes have been
burned in my head
for, for 32 years.

I thought to myself,
"You son of a bitch.

You've been sitting there
all these years,
and you're right there."

Mr. Whyte comes across
as intelligent, calm,
even arrogant.

Understands DNA.

Maintains,
"You got the wrong guy.

You made
a terrible mistake."

He wants to go to trial.

Let's do it.
Let's go to trial.

I'm talking
with the defense attorney,

he told me,
"Michael White will
consider no offers.

He doesn't...
He doesn't want a deal."

And I asked him, "Why?"

He said, "Well, frankly,
you're not getting
the evidence in."

Our biggest
challenge in trial,
without a doubt,

was making sure
that our evidence was
going to be admitted.

Charlie Green,
who was the evidence tech
at the time,

was no longer alive.

The coroner himself
was no longer alive.

We'd lost
several other detectives.

We have to find
a different way

to have that evidence
admitted at trial.

So, we had lead detectives
who were present on scene.

When I got
a phone call from the
District Attorney's office,

I was filming episodes
of American Detective
at the time.

And I told my producer,
I said, "Well, that's
pretty interesting.

We're here talking about
somebody's else's case."

My mind just rolled up.

I'm going back to court.

And when I testified
in the trial for Michael
David Whyte in June 2021...

I looked at him
as I walked by
the defendant's table.

And I thought,
"I've been looking for you
for a long time.

And here you are."

When I walked
into that courtroom,

because of
my current notoriety,

you could hear
a pin drop.

Every head in the jury box
is looking at me.

Every head in the gallery
is looking at me.

The only one not looking at me
was Michael Whyte.

He was looking
straight ahead.

My nerves, really, rested
with the victim's family.

Paul and Betty
had been struggling

with unanswered questions,
uh, for 30-plus years.

I think there was
some concern there
what was gonna happen

when I first laid
eyes on him.

And we did lock eyes.

And he knew
exactly who we were.

Hmm.

Really...

Nothing. I don't feel
anything for him.

I don't.

Oh, yeah.
Oh, yes, indeed.

Yes, I did.

Mmm. I don't wanna say.

I went
and took the stand
and explained,

at the time
this crime occurred,

I was a sergeant
and supervisor in Homicide.

Joe's primary role
in all of this

was to help
paint the jury a picture

of what detective work
looked like back at the time.

Joe testified that
DNA was in its infancy,

and they didn't know
exactly what it was.

They just knew that
there was a chance that
this futuristic technology

might one day exist,
and they wanted to be careful

in the event that
they would be able to use
that information.

We then proceeded to discuss
the tagging and marking
of evidence.

How and where
it was recovered,
and by whom.

And by what method
was it marked
and eventually restored.

He was able
to illustrate for the jury

the level of care
Charlie Green
was notorious for.

Charlie Green
wasn't somebody

who was known
for making mistakes
or cutting corners.

I had no difficulty
testifying to this,

because I was confident
we had done the right thing,

because we always do
the right thing.

And following that testimony,
I was excused.

And we got
some pushback
from the judge.

I think Ben and I
lost years of our lives

wondering what that ruling
was going to be.

There was
a lot of stress

going into
that bench conference.

While the judge
was considering that,
it was eerie quiet.

If the judge had ruled
that those items of evidence

would have been excluded
from the trial,

that would have been
the end of the trial.

And when he admitted
that first item of evidence,

I took my first
relaxed breath.

I think we were pretty certain
that Michael Whyte
would take the stand,

just because there's
an arrogance about him.

And when he took the stand,
he was adamant

that he didn't remember
Darlene Krashoc.

I found that hard to believe
because this case was
all over the media in 1987.

He testified on the stand,

"I did not kill
Darlene Krashoc."

He didn't know
anything about it.
And I thought,

"Really? Fort Carson,
and you didn't hear?

Mmm. No."

Michael Whyte's statement
to his attorney,
essentially, was,

that it's possible
he could have come
in contact with her,

and that he would have
sexual encounters

sometimes in the bathroom
of the bar,

sometimes in his car.

Their theory was that
this DNA had all gotten
on Darlene

through transferred DNA.

But that evidence
came in the form
of the clothes hanger

that was wrapped around
her neck and mouth,

and fashioned like
a horse bridle.

The secret buds, obviously,
that were found at the scene
of the crime.

Certainly,
there's no good answer

for Michael Whyte
on the cigarette butts.

The defense tried to argue
that this was transfer DNA.

That theory is debunked
when you combine that

with the three
cigarette buds

that are found
next to her body.

Because the person
who randomly decided
to rape and kill her,

without leaving
any of their own DNA,

wouldn't have had
Michael Whyte's

three cigarette buds
from that night.

In 1987, nobody knew
what the hell DNA was.

So there was no way
that they could make
that argument

that somebody was trying
to frame him

by placing his cigarette buds
at the scene of the crime,

because they would have had
no way of knowing that DNA
was even a technology

that the police
could have investigated
at that time.

In a case like this,
obviously, one of our
biggest hurdles

is that we don't know exactly
how this all went down.

Because this investigation
has been completed,

we are now
in a position to say

on the 17th of March,
1987, St. Patrick's Day,

Darlene decides,
"I'm going out tonight
to Shuffles with two friends."

We can say,
with some degree
of certainty...

that when Mr. Whyte sees her,
he dances with her.

Lord is a guy
that remembers things.

And he sees the picture
of Michael Whyte,
and he identifies him.

"That's the guy
with the beady eyes."
Instantly.

I'm sure. 100%.
That's him.

Later, she doesn't have
two men with her,
she's alone.

He either convinced her
he would give her a ride,

or asked her
for another drink.

Who knows?
We don't know.

But she probably
willingly went with him.

And then,
somewhere along that line,
something went very wrong.

Michael Whyte
said during interrogation,

"She looks
just like my ex-wife."

Was that
his attraction to her?

Was that the foundation
of his rage towards her?

You can say that,
you can't prove it.

But it does
make you wonder.

We don't know
the crime scene,
location.

But Mr. Whyte
loses control.

Does terrible things
to her body.

A bridle around her mouth
from twisted coat hangers.

Applies enough pressure
to kill her from asphyxia.

He then dumps her body
next to a dumpster.

One of the things
that's surprising about
that crime scene,

three cigarettes consumed,
down to the filters,

all three contain his DNA.

It takes a few minutes
to smoke a cigarette,

but he smoked
three of them.

What was he doing?

Admiring his work?

Calming down?

Try to stop his panic?

At the very moment
that he was having
those thoughts

that no one's
ever going to know,

there was a British
research doctor at work
on a DNA analysis tool

that would allow
people to identify
Michael David Whyte

over 30 years later.

Nobody expected
a quick verdict.

In this case,
they deliberated for
about three hours.

And the judge
brought the jury in.

"Have you reached
a verdict?"

She said,
"On the first count
of first-degree murder,

with deliberation...

we, the jury,
find him guilty."

Guilty.

And that's all
we needed to hear.

Guilty.

It was like the world
lifted off of our shoulders.

A flood of emotions.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Michael Whyte was sentenced
to life with the possibility
of parole.

But given
Michael Whyte's age,

I don't think he's going
to be able to make it
to his parole.

Three decades later,
an arrest was made,

and a jury convicted
Michael Whyte
of first-degree murder.

Her parents say,
"Justice has been served."

The crime he committed
was one of enormous violence,

savage behavior.

Worst I've ever seen
in a sex crime.

And now, Mr. Whyte
is gonna pay for that,

and he will die
in a 6x9 concrete room,

where he belongs.

Um...

commitment to Darlene.

Can't undo that.

But you gotta do
what you can.

I love you, baby girl.

I always called her
my baby girl.

And she knows.

Mr. Whyte
didn't realize something
that's quite significant.

He believed that
that moment in his life
passed by...

and he survived it.

He got away with it.

But there were
always footsteps
behind him.

Always.