Burden of Proof (2023): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript

This is the spiral notebook

that Margie Pandos,
uh, turned over to us

when she turned over the note.

The note that was left
at the scene

came out of this notebook.

This is a notebook
that Jennifer used

to write back and forth
with a friend.

So Jennifer would write summin',

when she'd finished, she would
give it to her friend, Kerrie,

and then Kerrie would respond.
I thought it was pretty typical

of what a 15-year-old girl
would do during high school.



There's a paragraph written
that states,

"You may not know this,

but there are great problems
among my family."

JENNIFER PANDOS, ACTOR:
"There are great problems
in my family."

"It just doesn't
seem that way."

"It just doesn't seem that way.

The tension in my family
is so great,

I don't let many people know
how I feel deep inside

because I don't care
what happens to my family.

We were never a family.

But my parents think
they can make us

one big, happy family.

I let them think it's working...

but it isn't,
and it never will."



As we can see, she was having

some type of issue
in the household.

The last entry in this notebook
was made on February 9th, 1987.

And there's nothing in here
that would indicate

that she was contemplating

running away or hurting herself
in any way.

For me, it was just
one of these moments of...

"Is this really happening?
Am I really here?"

When the police were trying
to get ahold of my mother,

Wendi called my mother
seven times

before my mother
called her back.

And during that period of time,
my mother is emailing my father,

asking, "What do they want?"

That day was stressful.

The letter of immunity
was on all crimes

other than homicide.

Margie didn't want the letter,
which led me to believe

that Margie was somehow
more involved

than what we had thought
at that point.

- Hi there. Come on in.
- Hey.

Nice to see you again.

I thought
this could be just
real informal,

get more background
information and stuff, so...

Okay.

Hang on.

- How you doing?
- Hi.

- Have a good one.
- Thank you.

Okay. Uh, that was unexpected.

Uh. This is from
the National Center

for Missing
and Exploited Children.

So it might be
the age-progressed...

drawing.

False alarm.

They asked
for a photograph of me

from around the time
I was 45 or so.

Many long years ago.

I don't know who that is.

Oh. Hello.

- Uh, is this Margie?
- It is.

Hello, my name is John...

That telephone ringing with me,

getting up to answer it...

...I've always been that way
since she left.

You know, I can't...

Unless I can see, you know,
who's calling...

I'm answering that phone.

So how did you meet Ron?

I was head cashier

and he was
one of the department managers,

and we married
and Stephen came along and

you know,
it's just a very mundane,

ordinary, nothing...

spectacular life.

Stephen was born
when he was stationed

at Hunter Army Airfield
in Savannah.

And when he was a month old,

I moved down there,
and in mid-October

he got called up
to go to Vietnam

and left Thanksgiving of '68.

He was the door gunner
on a helicopter,

but he never really talked to me
about what happened...

what he's... had seen,
what he did.

I really don't know.

I know he came home
with a Bronze Star,

but I don't know
what that was for.

And when he got back,
he got his degree in accounting

and a few years later,
Jennifer was born.

She had some problems.

Her hemoglobin was very low,
very pale.

But within two months,

her iron was back
where it needed to be

and we were happy and healthy,
and she was a jolly baby.

Very independent.

She was pulling up
with your fingers

when she was eight weeks old,

wanting to stand.
I always said that

when she learned
how to open the refrigerator,

that was the last
she needed of me.

It was always strained, I think,

because Stephen was an infant
when Ron went to Vietnam

and he came home, and he was
an 18-month-old toddler,

you know,
and he didn't really know him.

He knew me and his grandmother.
It was somebody he had to learn.

As he got older and into sports,

Ron was the little league dad
on his back,

and he was always that way,
on his back about something.

He had a sh... very short fuse.

Very short fuse. Um, you just...

mm...
...knew when to stop,

you know, if you were trying
to make a point.

If you woke him up,

you did it from a distance
because you didn't know

if he was gonna come up
swinging or not.

So, what I'd like to do is...

um, what we call is a "debrief."

And, uh, the reason we do that
is to look at all the facts.

Do we have motives?
Do we have people of interest,

people that we need
to interview?

And then we try to figure out
the best avenue

of following investigations.
Does that make sense?

So... what happened...

...to...

Jennifer?

So, scenario one,

Jenn left on her own.

If she left on her own
from her home

to at least the gate,
if she met somebody afterwards,

there was a pretty good distance
of a walk.

It was 28 degrees.

Did she take anything?
We don't know.

When she normally leaves
on a planned visit,

she takes a ton of stuff.

Her girlfriends
have verified that.

But the bigger question is

if she wrote the note
and she left on her own,

why was it necessary
to disguise her writing?

Disguising the writing

would rule this out
because it wasn't necessary.

If she was leaving
on her own free will,

why not write the note
in her own writing?

You always have to consider
this, suicidal ideation.

She left on her own
and she was gonna take her life,

maybe jump off a bridge,
jump into water.

But that scenario doesn't fit

because she had
no history of it.

So, scenario two

is Jenn calls somebody
to pick her up.

Who would come and get her?

Tony, the ex-boyfriend,
the unknown father figure?

There is one slight possibility
of Hendrix.

This is a person

that she babysitted for
in the past.

And could this possibly
be the same person?

I don't know.

Then again,
why disguise handwriting?

Why was that necessary?

I believe
that this is the less likely

of all the scenarios
that could have happened

because you have
to get past the gate,

you have to know
where the residence is,

you have to enter the residence

and participate
in writing a note

knowing that her parents
are upstairs.

It doesn't make sense

if nothing nefarious
was going on.

In the last scenario,
something happens in the house.

There's only three people
in the house...

Mom, Dad, Jenn.

In this scenario,
there's explanations

why the handwriting
is disguised.

"I'll never come back
if you notify the police,"

so there's a time delay
for the parents.

Certain details,

the money in the bank,
the doctor's appointments.

I need to cancel
her doctor's appointment

on Friday.

Mom makes the appointments,
and a 15-year-old kid

just goes whenever Mom says,

"Remember, we got
a doctor's appointment Friday."

The parents’ behavior
was bizarre.

Most parents, if their kid
was gone in the morning

and there was
a crazy note like that,

the first thing they'd have done
is call 911.

Sharon is the last person

that calls Jennifer
and talks to her

the night
before her disappearance,

calls from school
on two occasions.

Hi, Mrs. Pandos. Is Jenn there?

She's sick?

Oh, well can you tell her
that I called?

The first occasion,

the mother says
that Jenn's sick.

Is she still sick?
You said she was sick.

And on the second,

- she's off with her father.
- Oh.

Well, can you tell her
to call me

when she gets home, please?

She's lying to school kids

about her daughter,

when she knows
her daughter is missing.

And then, again,

none of her friends
ever hear from her.

I still stick to this scenario

as the one that I would pursue.

I'm thinking she had
some type of accidental death.

The parents’ behavior
is way too crazy to believe,

and then the polygraphs,
the handwriting,

the father's history
of potential violence,

post-traumatic stress syndrome.

It's tax time. He's stressed,
he's working hard.

She's got
a crappy teenage attitude

in calling him
by his first name.

Okay, okay, all right.

All right, I'll get off
the goddamn phone, Ronald, okay?

Sharon, I'll talk
to you tomorrow.

"Didn't I tell you
to get off that phone?

- It's a school night."
- I'm off the phone, Ronald.

"Whatever, Ronald."

I can't wait to just
get away from you.

And it could have been
as simple as...

And you fall back

and hit your head
on the bedpost...

Baby. Baby, wake up.

...fracture your skull
and you're dead.

Wake up. Baby, wake up.

- Wake up, baby.
- Baby, wake up.

Those are things
that only two people know

and that's the mother
and the father.

So where do you think she is?

Where do I think she is?
I have no idea.

No, we gotta...
You gotta think she's someplace.

- What do you think... if...
- If Ron were...

Hypothetically, if Ron were to
accidently kill her,

where would he put her?

I think he took her somewhere

on one of his nightly excursions

or when he went to Pennsylvania.

I'll
call you about my car later.

Okay. Yeah.

Bye, Dad.

In the three days

between the time
that my sister disappeared

and the time that my parents
called the police,

and my father
telling the police department

that he went to Pennsylvania

to tell his mother
about Jennifer...

That never happened.

So... can you tell me

- your relationship to Stephen?
- Cousin.

Once a year in the summer,

Jennifer and Stephen
would come in...

More so Jennifer
for about two weeks,

and I would spend time with her.
When Jenny and I were little,

I remember her and Ron
would be very playful,

wrestling and...

And it would get rough
sometimes.

And sometimes he did hurt her,
not intentionally,

but, you know,
Jenny would cry in the corner.

It was that kind of thing.

My aunt would always be yelling,
"Knock it off, knock it off."

So they were playful and loving,

but then on the other hand,
she was terrified of him.

I could see it.

But when I was a kid,
I just thought it was

because you're afraid to get
in trouble by your parents.

I don't know, though.

It's... It's just hard
to believe all of it really.

- Hey, Uncle Bob.
- Hey, Stephen.

How are you?

Give me a hug.

- How are you?
- Good, Jenn. How are you?

Good.

I have something for you.

What's that?

Oh, my God.

I was a fat baby.

Weren't you.

Oh, so when's that?

That was
when he graduated from...

- High school?
- ...high school.

And then the other one
is his grandmother, my aunt.

That's my grandma.

What did...

What did my parents
tell Nan all these years?

You know?

Well, it's a mystery to us.

But we didn't find out until...
We assume

- it was 1997 or '98 probably.
- Yeah.

- Right?
- One time I remember

when they came up
to visit in the summertime,

they said that Jenny was invited
to go to the shore with friends

and that's why she wasn't there.
And then when you got married,

your nan told us that
Jenny was living with somebody

who forbid her
to come to the wedding.

So we had no reason...

That's not what I heard.

- What did you hear?
- I heard that your dad had said

she had a trip planned
with friends.

That's why she wasn't
at your wedding.

But I thought,
"Why wouldn't you be

at your own brother's wedding?"

Yeah, I heard you say that

but Aunt Kitty told me...

- Different story.
- ...a different story.

I think the most
perplexing thing... if indeed

- Jenn was missing, right...
- Mm-hmm.

- ...the day she was missing...
- Yeah.

...why wouldn't someone
try to get in touch

with one of us
to see if Jenn ever called us

- or talk... talked to us?
- Yeah.

That's, I guess, the...
What bothers me the most.

When your grandmother got sick,
I remember saying to him,

"Ron, you need to tell
your mother about Jenny."

And later I ask him,

"Did you tell your mother?"
And he said, "Yes."

And I said, "What did she say?"

And he said, "She asked me
what I did to her."

It's obvious
from this letter he sent me

when he got out of prison
that, yeah, there is some things

that he carries with him
from Vietnam.

"To this day, I remember vividly
my first confirmed kill.

To this day,
I see the lady's face

and I constantly ask
if she had a family

and did she have any children?

I still have flashbacks.

My granddaughter
was born on August 12th, 1999

and I haven't seen her yet.

Not because I don't want to,

but because I'm too ashamed
to see my son.

I feel that I failed
my son and my daughter."

It's just sad.

I don't know how to say this,

so I'm just gonna
sort of spit it out

and it's gonna
be really inarticulate.

This whole experience...

and maybe o... one of the reasons
that I fight...

...you know,
so hard for Jennifer,

is that it's what a family
I think is supposed to be.

If that makes any sense?

Um...

And that ideal, you know. Um...

I guess because I never had it
and it's what I...

probably want
more than anything.

That sense of belonging that,
you know, that I don't have

because I really
don't have a family...

...an immediate family. Um...

Uh...

Does that make any sense?

Yeah.

- Hello?
- Hello. Come in.

This box is...

the evidence that I collected
against Ron Pandos.

It includes everything
I had on him.

- You okay?
- No. No, I'm not.

It's very difficult

because no one's wanted
to hear my story. No one.

And I begged people,
I begged them...

...to hear my story.

Where would you like to start?

You want to start
with just meeting Ron?

Well, I met him in...

2005 through
an internet dating site.

I just really, like,

fell head over heels
in love with him...

...becau... And he seemed to be
in love with me.

You know, he'd tell me
he was a veteran

and that his daughter
was like an endangered runaway.

And then he showed up
one day at my house

and he said,
"I brought something

for you to read."
And I said, "What is it?"

And he handed me
a piece of paper,

it was in a, uh, plastic holder.

And he said,
"This is the ransom note

they left when someone...

kidnapped my daughter."

And the ransom note
was written in...

like a black Marks-A-Lot,

in letters probably that big.

And I don't remember now
what it said,

but it struck me as very odd.

And I said... I said,
"Is that the original ransom?"

He goes, "Yes, it is."
I said, "Why do you have it?

How come the police department
didn't have it?"

He said, "Well, they didn't seem
to be interested."

And then,

I went and read
an article about Jennifer.

It had the ransom note
that was left

the night she disappeared.
The note he showed me

is totally different
than the other note.

Plus, when I read
that other note,

I said, "Well, I can tell you
who wrote it.

He wrote it, because
that's the way he writes."

Like starting out
in first person

and then going into,
like, third person.

He does that
as a matter of course.

So Ron marries Ruth Ann in 2007.

He pleads guilty
to the fraud charge

in South Carolina, 2008.

Shortly after that,
Ruth Ann turns him in

on possession of a firearm,

says something's going bad
with their marriage.

He is sentenced to three years.

During that time,
a protective order

is issued on behalf of Ruth Ann.
He's released on the 23rd,

and on March 25th,

he is accused of stalking her
and going by her residence.

And they all wondered,

"Why doesn't she divorce him?

Why does she
stay married to him?"

I did it because, as his wife,
I was able to give evidence

to Wendi Reed, the FBI,
and whoever needed it.

I spoke with Ruth Ann
about her relationship with Ron.

She told me
Ron was a habitual liar

and that she had come to believe
that Ron had killed Jennifer.

It was horrifying.
It was horrifying.

You know,
think about that daughter.

And...

Okay, Ron had always told me
that her boyfriend...

He was trying
to get her boyfriend,

like, indicted.

That guy is innocent.
Ron's trying to blame him.

I hope that man's not having
to live in fear of this.

- I just...
- Be... Before you start...

- Yeah.
- ...just so you know,

because... And I tell this
to everybody that talks to me,

is I don't BS,

and I'll tell it to you
just like I have it.

So, if you can't deal with that,
that's your problem.

Well, I'm all right with that.

Okay. I just...
Just so you know.

So walk me through
the night before.

What... What do you remember?

- About the night before?
- Yeah. And like...

I do remember...

Jenny was in her room.
Well, I was working.

I worked late that night,
I remember that.

Uh...

Jenny was doing homework
when I came home.

She was in her room
doing her homework.

And, uh, we just basically
all went to bed.

'Cause we watched...
Yeah, we just went to bed.

And then the next morning,
my wife at the time got up...

and went to open her door
and it was locked.

We were going, "What the hell"...
Sorry, "What's going on?"

Got the door open,

and then the note
was laying on her bed.

And then I read the note...

...and I went,
"What the hell just happened?"

First thing I did
that I remember...

was I went to both gates...

to see if they had a record
of anybody who came in...

into the gates,
came into the subdivision,

but they didn't have anything.

Passed out posters,

went...

...tried to find Tony Tobler.
Couldn't find Tony

'cause I still say
he has something to do

with the issue.

And I could be wrong,
but that's just my opinion.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag

of the United States of America

and to the Republic
for which it stands,

one nation, under God,

indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all."

When's the last time
you talked to Stephen?

Eight years ago.

He had come to the prison
to talk to me.

And he wanted me

to admit to doing stuff

that I know I didn't do,
and I wouldn't admit to it.

Do you remember
any part of that conversation?

Not that I wanna talk about.

In February 2010,

I went to see my father
when he was in prison.

I'm speaking to my father,
you know, through...

On a telephone,
through a piece of glass.

And it was during that,
you know,

three and a half hour
conversation

that my father said, you know,

"Hypothetically, I hit her
and she fell and hit her head."

And you know,
"You want me to take the fall

for this for your mother?
I'll take the fall."

Which I believe
is my father's way of saying

he did it while being a victim.

You know, a martyr for my mother
or an accident if he hit her.

But he gets
to avoid responsibility.

So, from the time...
From the prison,

how many contacts
have you had since then?

- He left me one voicemail.
- Oh, just a voicemail?

- That was it.
- What did he say?

You know, he accused me
of playing God, I guess,

with this thing with my mother.

Is he married now?

He is. Wife number three.

How do you feel
about giving him a call again?

Do you think
he'd ever tell you the truth?

I'd like to think that he would.

We don't have anything
to lose, do we?

Nothing.

Yeah, he can call me. Yeah.

And if you have an issue,
let's get down and settle it.

If you have something
to discuss, let's discuss it.

Here it is.

I put this out for Jennifer.

I just felt like,
after, you know,

the court declared her
deceased, that...

I had to do something.

And when we put this out,
we had a little,

you know,
ceremony I guess with, uh...

one of the local ministers
from town came out here. But...

Uh...

This is what we did for her.

It's all dirty.

It's just one of those things

that reminds you
that this is a reality,

and it's hard to get used to.

I got an email
from Stephen this morning.

"Hi, Dad. A lot has happened
that you don't know about.

In 2014, I petitioned
the court in Virginia to have

Jennifer declared deceased,
which they did.

I also subpoenaed
the police department

for Jennifer's case file.

That is what I want to discuss."

So that kind of irritated me
a little bit.

Actually, a lot,
to be honest with you.

I understand it's his sister...

but it's their daughter,

And what gives him the right
to tell everybody she's dead

if they don't know that
for a fact?

Unless he knows something
we don't know.

Which is a good...
Which is a question.

Somebody's not being
straight up,

let me put it that way. Hmm.

And I really think
the last thing...

...somebody wants to do
is not be straight up.

Hmm.

Because God forbid
if that becomes the case.

Hmm.

Hey, Stephen. How you doing?

I'm doing great, Donnie.
How are you?

All right. What's up?

I'm hoping to have
a conversation with my father...

here shortly.

I want to hear, you know,
what he has to say

about some of the accusations

in this analysis of these notes.

- Then ask him.
- Yeah, well...

But let me tell you, though,

sometimes you gotta
eat a little crow.

I don't know if you love him,
but I would say,

"Dad, we don't have much family
but you are my father.

So if you know something,
you know, please tell me.

I just want to know

what happened
to my little sister."

But I mean,
our time on Earth is limited.

He's not getting any younger

and you want to find out
what happened, right?

Absolutely.

Because every time
he gets in a dialogue,

he says stuff
like the crazy comments

about, "Get me in an airplane
and I'll show you where she is."

You know,
what do you have to lose?

Not a lot.

- All right, man.
- Thanks, Donnie.

- See you later.
- Okay.

- Take care. Goodbye.
- All right, bye-bye.

Okay.

Can we take a break
for a minute?

Hello.

Hey, Dad.

Hey, uh, help me out here.
What's going on?

Who gave you the authority

to go and have her
declared deceased?

I... I, you know,
I'm her brother.

I... I can do that.
Take it up at the court.

That's what I did.
And at the same time,

I subpoenaed
the police department

for Jennifer's case file.
When they picked the case

back up in the early 2000s,

they had to rebuild a case file
and that's what they gave me.

Ask him
if he can send you a copy...

Can you send me a copy of it?

Yeah.

So, I'm gonna email you
a couple things

and then we can go through

while you're sitting there
on the phone.

I just sent it.

Print those things
and then call me back.

- Okay.
- Okay, great.

- Thanks. Bye-bye.
- All right, bye.

His wife Jay has no idea.

She doesn't know...

any of this.

You can look at the other.

We're supposed to read it
and call him back.

"The inclusion
of personal information

in the letter
suggests the writer

had an extremely
close relationship to Jennifer."

So, I just sent my father

an analysis of the note

that was left
when Jennifer disappeared.

"If your note was fabricated

to misdirect the investigation

and it contains
personal information,

your most plausible offender

would be one
or both of the parents."

What?

I just don't comprehend.

Well, some things
don't make sense.

The stuff in here,
I think it's pretty chilling.

If he's not real medicated
right now,

he's reading this
and just getting

angrier and angrier
with every sentence.

I can partially understand

where he's coming from.
Not totally, partially.

- But how do you...
- Hmm.

What do you think
happened to Jennifer that night?

I really think somebody
came in to get Jennifer.

And whether they lived in there,

- or whether they...
- But why?

I don't know. If I knew why,

- I'd be a happy camper.
- I know.

Hello.

Hello, Stephen, it's me again.

Hi.

I still don't see anything
that Margie or Ron, either one,

did anything to Jennifer.

You know, Jay,
when you read these documents

and you take into account
all of the other things.

The four different teams
of cadaver dogs

that all had positive hits
underneath my parents’ house,

that my father
did not tell his family

that Jennifer disappeared
for at least seven years

- after the fact. That...
- Stephen, he went up

and told your grandmother
about a week after it happened.

That's not true.

- Yeah, it is.
- Yeah, it is.

It is... It is not true.
It is not...

Well, that's...
According to...

According to his aunt...

I've talked to them.

They did not know
for seven years, at least.

I've talked to Sharon Rose,

who was on the phone
with Jennifer

when you guys got into a fight
the night that she disappeared.

Both my parents
have failed polygraphs.

You know, why did you guys

wait three days
to call the police?

Because that's what
the note said to do.

They really believed
what the note read.

- Okay. All right.
- They didn't know. It said

- not to contact the police.
- So here it is.

So you believed
and you wanted to follow

all the terms of the note.

The note also said to put money
into Jennifer's bank account,

- but you guys never did that.
- That's right. We never did.

Right. So how do you follow

some terms of the note,
but not all?

I don't think they canceled
the doctor's appointment either.

Okay, you're deflecting.

- You know, the...
- No, we're not.

No, we're not.
We're not deflecting at all.

- It's ridiculous.
- No, it's not.

You need
to get your head on straight.

My head
is pretty much on straight.

- You know...
- No, I don't.

You don't have good answers.

Well, the fact that they could

get rid of the body
is ludicrous.

I mean, where...
Where did they put it?

I don't know.
Why don't you ask my dad?

He drew a partial map
when he failed his polygraph.

- A map to what?
- A map to what?

To where Jennifer's body is,
behind the mill pond.

No, you better back up there

because what they asked me to do
was they asked me to draw

the back of the property.
And then they asked me

what was on the other side
of the pond

and my answer was woods.

Okay, well,
I'm just... I'm just...

I'm telling you
what I've been told.

And the police have
no reason to lie to me.

Are you sure about that?

Yeah, I'm sure about that.

When I confronted
my father about this

when he was in prison
in Oklahoma,

what did you tell me, Dad?

You said hypothetically what?

Oh, I said, hypothetically,
do you want me to...

state that your mother did it,
or something like that?

No.

You said hypothetically

you hit Jennifer
and she fell and hit her head.

And then you said,
"You want me to take the fall

for this for your mother?
I'll take the fall."

Which is your way of saying
you did it.

Outside of Jennifer

walking in the door,

is there anything else
gonna convince you

that your father had nothing
to do with this?

Doubtful.

Did you guys have
any type of relationship at all?

No. My father
was not safe to be around.

He was...
Had a temper.

He was unpredictable and violent

and abusive to me
and to my sister.

And emotionally abusive
to my mother. So no.

- That's interesting.
- Yeah, that is.

Has he ever hit you?

- Absolutely.
- Yeah.

I'm not talking
about a spanking.

Oh, no. I'm talking about...
I've been choked, punched,

kicked, hit with a golf club.
You name it, it's happened.

Okay. Hmm.

This exactly is why I said

you need to talk to your dad
and to your mom,

and I feel really sorry
for your mom right now.

- I feel so sorry.
- Well, you know what?

I'm sorry for her too.
And I'm... And I'm angry that,

you know, for her in that,
you know, my father

has robbed her
of any kind of life over this.

That was your choice, Stephen.

Now, Stephen,
you gotta own up to that.

Ron had nothing to do
with your decision making.

And when was the last time
you talked to her?

Mm...

I don't know.

It's been a little while.

Yeah.
So you really think I did it?

Yes.

- Okay. Hmm.
- All right.

Well, listen.
You have a nice day.

- Sure. Bye-bye-bye.
- Bye.

That was surreal.

And I just was...

I feel like
I'm surrounded by crazy.

I don't...

But, you know,
conversations like this

are just maddening.

You know?

To me, I don't know
how anybody can read this

and honestly say
that it's not conclusive.

Sharon did say
that she heard you on the phone.

And the way she describes it,

you got heated with Jennifer
about getting off the phone.

Could be.

If it was past her bedtime,

I would have said,
"Get off the phone."

I could see me doing that
in a heartbeat.

I can see you being strict.

I can fully see that,
a 100 percent.

But I can't see you
being physical-abusive, I can't.

- Hmm. Nah.
- Do you think

- Marge was afraid of you?
- No.

I don't, you know...
As far as I know, no.

It's crazy.

I... Am I nuts? You know?

After all this.

You know, I feel that way.

I just... I don't know what else
I can do right this second.

I feel like
I've tried everything

over the years.

I don't know if we'll
ever have a relationship.

I don't know if he will
ever be able

to put that aside
and know that I'm here.

I'm here for him,

I feel his pain,
I have pain myself.

I think the
assumption by Stephen is that

the note was in the case file,

so you having it
makes it suspicious.

As for the missing case file,

I cannot say with total recall

that I saw that...
That Ron had it,

but something...

out there wants me to say
that yes, he did.

Some inkling
back in the recesses of my mind

that he had it.

And how he got it, I don't know.

So we're going to do
a cadaver dog search

in Kingsville, where my father
drew this partial map.

This would be the second one,
they've done one before.

Wendi wants to do it again,
so we're gonna do it again,

and hopefully
they find something.

- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.

- How are you? Good.
- I'm good. How are you?

So tell me
what this area looked like

back in '87.

- Probably much...
- Were these houses here?

- Yeah. Everything was here.
- Okay.

Do we have
some reason to believe

that an altercation occurred

- in these areas...
- No.

...or is that
just a supposition?

I'm thinking for a body...

Hiding a body, body disposal.

Well, I think we have a plan.

If you can give him a call,

he wanted to talk to you
while you're up here.

Sure.

Good luck.

Yeah, okay.

I'll see you back
at the hotel later.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you ready?

Search!

Hey, Jake. Stephen.

Hey, how you doing?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. That's fine.
We can do it now if you want to.

Tell us who Jake is.

So, Jake Rice,

he's the guy in charge
of the investigation.

We're gonna go
see what he has to say.

- You all right?
- I'm doing. I'm doing.

What?

They found the case file
buried in the bottom of the...

...you know,
property evidence room in a...

The... in a box somewhere.

They found
the original case file.

|Don't you guys wanna hear this?

Oh.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Uh-huh.

All right.

Yeah, come on in.

So, how did it go?

Uh, they ran the three dogs...

- Uh-huh.
- ...and they showed

- some interest in the area...
- Yeah.

...but they didn't indicate
that there was anything there.

If the theory is that
something happened

and your sister
was removed from the house,

then it looks more like,
you know,

they probably would have
left in a car.

All right.

Which that opens up the door
for anywhere...

- Right.
- ...you know.

So, I went and saw Jake, um,

and he told me
that they found the case file.

He said that there was
some new stuff in it

but didn't really elaborate.

It's hard
to get your head around, right?

- Right.
- You know...

It's a lot to process
in one day.

Right. In a couple of hours.

Right.

Right.

The original case file
was located.

It was located
inside of our records division.

So what changed
for you then when that happened?

Well, what changed is that
there was information in there

that we had never had.

Different names
that were in there.

It gave us a
little bit more perspective

on exactly what the parents
were telling us.

By looking in that case file,

you can tell
that the mother and father

were very active in the case
when she went missing.

They were out handing out flyers

and constantly in contact
with the police department.

Now, the parents,

are they still
high on your list of suspects?

They were in the house with her.

They were the last ones
to see her.

So, Ron and Margie are suspects

as long as
we don't have information

or evidence
that exonerates them.

I mean, does the fact

that they have now found
the case file,

does it change anything?

It gives
the current investigator

things to follow up on I'm sure.

- Right.
- It's just new

information to check on.

It just seems like...

everything my parents did
was opposite...

Right.

...of what everybody else does.

Yeah. And with the note,

you know, no logical person
is gonna do something to a kid

and then break back
into the house...

- Right.
- ...to leave a note

and risk getting caught.

All right.
Well, what's next, Donnie?

I've always wanted to do
the interview with your mother.

Yeah, for sure.

It's gonna be a tough interview.

I think she knows more.

I don't know
that she knows all the details.

I think if my father
could have kept,

you know, details to himself,

that he would have done it,

but I don't think
there's any doubt

that she knows more.

Yes.

I believe
all cases are solvable.

Now, some take
a whole lot more time,

some of them take
just the extreme

little bit of luck,
and I believe

that we are going to come
to a conclusion on this case.