Buried in the Backyard (2018–…): Season 2, Episode 9 - New England Nightmare - full transcript
A murderous ripple spreads through a lovely New England town when a ghastly discovery is made in a backyard barn. The search for answers uncovers troubling questions about a doting mom and ...
In the spring of 2010,
long buried secrets
ignite a murderous ripple
through a New England town.
It was actually a human bone.
It came out that they'd been
pretty savagely beaten.
He said that his dad
had actually killed them
and put them in that hole.
There was always
something about him
that was a little frightening.
And the search for answers
uncovers troubling questions.
Word was out that maybe
she'd gone off with someone,
but why would she go off
and leave this little girl?
Everyone
is a potential suspect.
That's over the top.
That is almost too emotional.
He was smiling in my face
and asking me if I knew
where she might've gone.
He knew exactly where she was.
Until the truth
is finally uncovered.
Newtown, Connecticut,
is a community
rich in history
and East Coast charm.
Newtown is a nice,
pretty New England town.
It's got a wide main street.
Very large stately residences,
a lot of farms, rural areas.
And overall,
a fairly wealthy town.
In April 2010,
a doctor and his family
have just moved to town
and are settling
into their new home.
They bought the property
and they began
building an apartment.
The new owner and his son
are ripping up an old floor
when something unusual
catches their eye.
They uncovered a drywell
in the basement floor.
A drywell
is a hole in the ground.
If the water then seeps
through the soil,
it can then go into that well
and fill it up.
Eager to see
what it looks like inside,
they quickly remove
the concrete hatch.
They saw several things
inside that hole.
They found some bedding
and they found some
type of plastic bag.
Curious what else
might be stashed in the hole,
they cautiously
pull the bag away...
and make a ghastly discovery.
It was actually a human bone.
It was a femur.
That's when
they called the police.
When we go out
to scenes like this,
we have our crime scene
processing personnel.
This is what
they're trained for.
This is what
they're extremely good at.
Will there
be other grisly discoveries
awaiting investigators?
They found
what they believe to be
more human
remains.
There was a plastic bag
over where the head area
would've been.
The crass collection of bones
makes up a full human skeleton.
Based on the conditions
of the bones,
they thought that those bones
were probably there
for quite a long time.
Initially, we didn't know
if they were male or female.
But I thought
we had a cold-case homicide.
We have to solve this.
After surviving a long,
brutal East Coast winter,
there's nothing more delightful
than the coming of spring.
And no place more beautiful
to celebrate it
than Newtown, Connecticut.
Springtime feels
wonderful in New England
because you have
a long, long winter.
And then
when springtime comes,
flowers come,
and it's just so special.
It's the time of year
John and Elizabeth Heath love
most of all,
enjoying beautiful days
with the daughter they love
and the animals they adore
on their stunning plot
of Connecticut land.
As soon as we moved in,
the Heaths came over
and said hello
and introduced themselves
and they were very friendly.
Elizabeth had her dogs.
They were purebred
Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.
So the weekends,
she'd be out
going to dog shows
all over the East.
Liz was a little bit
of a hippie.
When I first saw Elizabeth,
she was quite overweight.
She was very earthy
in the best sense of the word.
Over time,
like a lot of married moms,
Elizabeth loses herself.
And in 1984, she decides
to pursue her own dream
of becoming
a child and family therapist.
She was in school.
She was really excited
about being
in her last semester.
She was gonna get a degree.
Liz's life
was doing well at that point
and she started losing weight.
She lost a lot of weight.
She did look very different.
She looked much more
pulled together.
She was very,
very proud of herself for that.
I felt proud for her
because she was trying
to improve herself
and change her life.
On the outside,
this proud mom
has never felt
or looked better.
But things at home are not
as picture perfect
as they appear.
Her marriage
started going sour.
She was depressed.
John,
he was a pretty strange guy
and I think Elizabeth
really felt
she wanted to do more
with herself
and change her life.
When Elizabeth came over
to talk to me,
she was definitely unhappy.
She was asking
for a place for her
and her daughter to live.
I don't believe
it was for permanently,
but "Can I come and be there
while I sort myself out?"
And then she disappeared.
In April of 1984,
Elizabeth's brother,
Aubrey Gough,
gets a worried call
from her husband, John.
I remember John calling me up.
"Elizabeth's missing.
Do you have any idea
where she went?"
"I don't know."
"Do you know?"
He seemed panicked.
He was looking for her.
And I told him
it was not a total shock
that she disappeared
because this was
a regular thing in our family.
People disappeared.
When they wanted to disappear,
they were gone,
but they would always
show up again.
And she told me
she was getting divorced,
so maybe she just went away
for a while,
you know, couple days,
a week or so,
maybe she'll start to cool off.
Elizabeth's family assumes
she'll be home soon enough.
But after three days,
she still hasn't surfaced
and John reports her missing.
He said that
they were in the process
of going through divorce.
However, they were
still living together.
His daughter
actually said that
Elizabeth had come in
in the middle of the night
and said goodbye to her.
Once he started
searching around,
he actually found
that there was $600
that was missing
out of a drawer.
She left her dog behind.
She left her child behind.
You know, it's just weird.
The disappearance
of Elizabeth Heath
is baffling indeed.
I made some phone calls
to friends and family
to see if they knew
anything about her,
if she was for some reason
staying over there or something
and she wasn't there.
Obviously, they were going
through a divorce.
We thought there was
a prominent possibility
that she ran away.
The word was out that maybe
she'd gone off with someone,
but I also thought
that was highly unlikely
because why would she go off
and leave this little girl?
The whole thing
seemed odd to me.
Even though
they were getting divorced,
that was her baby
and couldn't see anything
driving a wedge between that.
But John tells investigators
he suspects another man
may be the wedge
driving Elizabeth away.
He reported that
just recently,
she had lost
a significant amount of weight
and it seemed like
she had a newfound freedom.
He also talked about a group
that she was hanging
around with
and he also said
that he thought that
she liked a male in that group.
He thought that she had ran off
with her lover.
You look at the fact
that the marriage
occurred so soon
and you become suspicious.
I mean, everybody
on Poverty Hollow Road
knew about it.
We were speculating
that perhaps
she hadn't run away
and that maybe--
maybe she's not alive.
Days into the investigation
of 32-year-old
missing mom Elizabeth Heath,
her soon-to-be estranged
husband, John, suggests
another man may be
behind her disappearance.
John specifically
mentioned that
he thought
one of the possibilities was
is that she had actually ran off
with a boyfriend
and that they had
actually gone off to India.
He had told the police that
that he actually wanted
to have more children
and that she didn't want to.
That was another reason why
she was probably
running away from
that life that they had.
We have to keep open
a possibility
that it was true,
that she had actually run away.
But as a detective,
we cannot get locked into
what the belief is
of a family member.
Not only
might they be involved
in what we're investigating
but also they aren't
the trained investigators.
Investigators work tirelessly
but find nothing to tie John
to Elizabeth's disappearance.
Then three weeks
into the investigation,
a call from her mother-in-law
may change everything.
John's mother actually reported
seeing Elizabeth
in a vehicle in their driveway
at Poverty Hollow
sometime soon after
she was reported missing.
Although the mother didn't
actually engage with her,
she was pretty confident
that it was Elizabeth.
John's mom tells police
that when Elizabeth saw her
in the window,
she quickly drove away.
That just makes us think that
she must still be alive
and still in the area.
Detectives
get information about the car
Elizabeth is seen driving
and begin searching
the neighborhood for it.
The only way
it would make any sense
would be that somebody
whacked her on the head
and she lost her memory
and didn't know who she was.
Maybe she's living
somewhere else
as a different person.
But as weeks go by
and investigators find no trace
of Elizabeth or the car,
everyone fears
it's just a false lead.
If you haven't
actually spoken to her
or looked her in the eye,
then it's like it didn't happen.
Aubrey Gough does his best
to comfort
his four-year-old niece
who desperately misses her mom.
She had no idea
what was going on.
She was the unwitting
victim in this.
We still had some
little glimmer of hope that
maybe I'll run
into her or something,
maybe she'll
get her memory back,
maybe she was kidnapped,
who knows?
Four months later,
with no indication
she's coming back,
John Heath proceeds
with the couples'
planned divorce.
That's when John
started having
a relationship with Raquel.
She was a friend of the family.
The fact that she was around
wasn't surprising at all.
It seemed kind of sudden,
but not surprising really
because they had spent
so much time together,
and she was very close
with the daughter,
kind of seemed natural.
John falls
fast and hard for Raquel
and six months
into the relationship,
he asks for her hand
in marriage.
Raquel
was the ultimate hostess,
I would say.
Raquel wanted the world
to come over,
was always invited.
Chet, John's father,
he was there a lot.
Chet and Liz
didn't get along all that well
because he was kind of creepy.
But it was a fun
group of people.
Elizabeth's brother, Aubrey,
embraces Raquel with open arms,
thrilled his niece again has
a mother figure in her life.
Always wondered
what happened with Liz
and was I ever
going to see her again,
but on the other hand,
my niece was growing up.
Everybody seemed
to be happy over there.
Kind of have to move on
with life at some point.
Still,
Elizabeth's disappearance
is never far from the minds
of those who love her
or the rumor mills
of Newtown neighborhoods.
I mean, everybody
on Poverty Hollow Road
knew about it.
There was lively conversation.
We were speculating
that perhaps
she hadn't run away
and that maybe,
you know, who knows?
Maybe--
maybe she's not alive.
But it was just speculation.
John and Elizabeth
had been in the process
of getting a divorce
and he certainly
had the motive,
the means,
and the opportunity.
A cloud of suspicion hangs over
Elizabeth's
former husband, John.
Yet there are no signs
of foul play
and nothing
that implicates anyone
in Elizabeth's disappearance.
We don't even know
if a crime occurred.
And if all leads
are extinguished
and therefore
there's nothing more
to follow up on,
there's just no more evidence,
there's nobody else to--
to talk to,
the case is going
to a cold-case file.
The more time passed,
the more the light dimmed
and we thought we'll never know
exactly what happened
or find out the real truth.
Elizabeth's family adjusts
to its new reality.
For 19 years,
they live with the unknown,
but on April 14th, 2010,
that all changes.
A forensics team
is meticulously excavating
the skeletal remains
found in the drywell
under a backyard barn.
They were bunched up
together, the bones,
and there was sheets
and the bedding.
It was distinct bedding
and a pillow with a pillowcase.
We didn't have any
definitive weapon identified
such as a knife or a gun.
Could it be
that for all these years,
Elizabeth Heath
has been buried
behind her own home?
Knowing that
Elizabeth was missing
from that same exact property
was significant to us.
We determined that
there was a strong possibility
that those were her remains.
Twenty-five years
after Elizabeth Heath vanished,
her brother Aubrey Gough
gets the call
he's been dreading for years.
I got a phone call
and they said,
"Are you sitting down?"
And they said, "We think
we found your sister."
It sent a shiver up my spine.
They were pretty sure
that was her remains.
They hadn't gone through
all the testing
and all that kind of stuff yet
but they were pretty positive
it was my sister.
Several days later,
the medical examiner
releases its report
to anxious investigators.
Through the dental records,
medical examiner
was able to determine that
the remains that were found
in the drywell
were Elizabeth.
The details
of her death are devastating.
There was multiple
fractures to the skull,
also some significant injuries
to the shoulder
and then also the forearm.
She was struck
at least four times in the head
and her jaw
was completely broken.
There was a break
in the shoulder blade
that could have only happened
from a strong compact blow.
As well as defensive wounds
from holding an arm up
while you're being attacked
and there were bones broken
in one of her arms as well.
Medical examiner
was able to determine
that cause of death
was blunt force trauma.
The injuries were consistent
with a crime of passion
that told us
that it was probably
somebody close to Elizabeth.
For Elizabeth Heath's family,
the reality is almost worse
than not knowing.
There was a cold pit
in my stomach,
now I know what happened.
She actually is dead.
With injuries that indicate
a possible crime of passion,
detectives will look back
at those closest to Elizabeth,
including her husband, John.
With his grief so raw,
Aubrey's memories of the couple
go naturally to happier times.
Liz told me
that she had met a guy
and how great he was,
and how nice he was to her.
They got married
right in the backyard
because they loved
that property so much,
they wanted an outdoor wedding.
It was a beautiful day.
Investigators talked at length
with John Heath during
the initial investigation
but without a body,
there wasn't a crime scene
and nothing to tie him
to her disappearance.
In 1984, John woke up
and he reported that
she just simply was not there.
One of the themes
that John presented to us
early on
was a concern over money.
When you look at
what's the likely outcome
during a divorce
as far as that he's gonna have
to pay alimony,
maybe he snapped
and ended up killing her.
So things were leading
in the direction
that John Heath was involved.
Detectives want to get to John
and his long-time wife Raquel
before the news
of the human remains
spreads through town.
Our initial game plan
was we acted like
we were just simply
doing some follow-up to this
cold-case missing person,
just to kind of
create some report.
One of the first things
that came up in conversation
was he had some
physical challenges,
he was on oxygen,
and more importantly that
he had a hard time
remembering things.
Raquel
kept filling in the holes,
and filling in the holes,
and reminding him.
In fact,
Raquel has a lot to say.
And most of it
revolves around Elizabeth.
Raquel actually
carried on this premise
of the fact that Elizabeth--
and that her family actually
had this history
of running away.
Raquel was just
absolutely convinced
that she had run away.
She talked about it
not in terms
of any type
of doubt or question.
Raquel is emphatic
and the ailing John Heath
doesn't disagree,
sticking with his story
from all those years ago
that Elizabeth
ran off with another man.
It was a common theme,
both John and Raquel
didn't think much of Elizabeth,
they talked about her badly
pretty much throughout
the entire interview.
Their berating of Elizabeth
was specifically the fact
that they didn't think
that she was a good mother.
They constantly
talked about the fact
that the reason why Raquel
had to babysit so much
was because Elizabeth
was not around.
To me, I took it as,
is this something that
they're trying to take us
down the road to make us believe
that she truly did run away?
At this point in the interview,
I'm starting to feel that
there's a stronger possibility
that they both had something
to do with Elizabeth's death.
Investigators suspect
John Heath
and his long-time wife Raquel
may be harboring
some long-held secrets
in the death
of his former wife, Elizabeth.
Now, after two hours
of questioning,
detectives steer
the conversation to the barn
where they recently discovered
her remains.
John, who claimed
to have a failing memory
is now as sharp as a tack.
He knew every square
inch of that property.
He not only knew it,
but his hands had a role
in playing in remodeling it
and designing it.
John seems to recall
everything about the barn,
except for the drywell.
When I specifically
then mentioned this drywell,
he kind of stuttered and paused.
If he's gonna come back
and say that he is unaware
of a hole in the basement
of his barn
where he has done
significant remodeling,
that just doesn't fit for us.
His diversionary tactics,
his answers,
his lack of concern,
his trying to claim
that he didn't have much
of a memory.
And yet, through conversation,
we show that he had
an absolutely detailed memory.
Unlike John, Raquel
seems to wanna know more.
Raquel was very inquisitive
about why we were focusing
on that area,
whereas John was not asking
those questions at all.
Now that they have the couple
locked in on their story
about the drywell,
Detective Jewiss drops the news
about finding
Elizabeth's remains.
They had two significantly
different reactions.
John continued on
with being very calm
whereas Raquel
had a very emotional reaction.
Throughout the interview,
it may sound like we are having
casual conversation.
But as trained interviewers,
everything that we are doing
is for a purpose
and we're trying to pick up on
different signs and indicators.
If you just listen
to that timeframe
or you just sat and watched
that portion of the interview,
you could look at it and say,
"That's over the top.
That is scripted.
That is almost too emotional."
But because we had established
a baseline with Raquel,
I think that was actually
extremely consistent
with what her personality was.
And it was just
an honest reaction for her.
John very much
is overly calm, unemotional.
Regardless of what he thought
of Elizabeth,
why he would not be
full of questions
about what happened to her
and anything that involved
the love of his life,
that barn, and that house,
you would think that he would
absolutely
have some detailed questions.
Raquel was doing that
at some point, he was not.
But we can't absolutely
rule her out.
But unless we found
some smoking gun
that said that she was
absolutely involved,
I was definitely more
on the side
that not only
was she not involved in it,
but she had no knowledge at all
about what had happened
to Elizabeth.
Detectives have saved
one gruesome detail for last.
Someone brutally beat Elizabeth
to death.
When we specifically told him
that the forearm
had actually been broken
and appeared to be smashed,
he actually lifted
his two hands up
and he brought them down
almost like
in a smashing motion.
And he said,
"So, like smashed with a..."
And then he stopped himself.
I believe that there's
a good possibility
that he was actually
reliving the actions
that he took that night
in killing Elizabeth.
Then he kind of stuttered
and paused,
and he started to present
the possibility
that somebody else
had killed her.
What John Heath
tells detectives next
takes their breath away.
He said that his dad
had actually killed her
and put her in that hole.
Hours into questioning
Elizabeth's ex-husband John,
he makes a stunning accusation,
telling detectives he believes
his own father
killed and buried her.
He claimed that his father
had a history of sexually
assaulting children.
Did Elizabeth
threaten to go to authorities
with the claims
against her father-in-law?
And could that have led
to her death?
Chet and Liz
didn't get along all that well.
They had had some arguments
at some point.
The story
seems farfetched to detectives
who suspect John is simply
trying to cast suspicion
on someone other than himself.
Still, they're eager
to talk with Chet Heath
to hear his side of the story.
There's just one small problem.
By that time in 2010,
his father
had already passed away.
John Heath was,
now presenting the possibility
that his father was the one
that had killed Elizabeth,
knowing that there's no way
that we could actually
track down and confirm
or deny those leads.
That to me points
directly back to him.
In the hours after
Elizabeth's remains are found,
investigators continue
searching
for any kind of evidence
to back up John's claims.
While the news
of Elizabeth's murder
quickly spreads
through Newtown and beyond.
We sit down
to watch the evening news
and it flashes
right across the screen,
"Human bones found
in Newtown, Connecticut."
And I said,
"That's my neighbor."
Very unsettling to know
that you were right there
living next door.
I just sat there
thinking that that little girl
thought that her mommy
ran away
and she didn't.
While the community
comes to terms
with the news of a gruesome
murder in their own backyard,
detectives uncover
some unsettling information
about John Heath.
About four to six months
after Elizabeth
was reported missing,
Raquel was added to the deed
of the home.
And certainly, that was strange.
The discovery of the deed
casts more suspicion on John.
Yet frustrated detectives
still have no conclusive
evidence to tie him
to Elizabeth's murder.
Because of the length
of the 25 years
that we're talking about,
and being buried in a drywell,
there was just no possibility
of being able to get DNA
from those things
at the crime scene.
Without the help of DNA,
investigators turn
to Elizabeth's inner circle.
I went to one
of her best friends at the time
and I said, "Do you have any
pictures of Elizabeth?"
Because at the-- at that point
I didn't even have a--
a visual picture of what
she looked like back in 1984.
One of the pictures
that she showed
was a picture of Elizabeth
sitting on the bed.
She's holding the baby.
Something familiar
catches the detective's eye.
What I saw right away
was that bedding
was the bedding
from the cistern with the body.
It's the bedspread.
Has the detective
just found the evidence
he needs to nail a killer?
From that photo
to that scene,
definitely it was a match.
It showed me as a detective
where the assault took place.
She's wrapped up in that bedding
so she definitely came
from the master bedroom.
Conceivably,
anybody in the Heath family,
including John's father,
would've had access
to the bedroom that night.
But we asked and John said
they had slept together
that night in the same bed,
and then he woke up the next
morning and she was gone.
That picture was
a damning piece of evidence
against John Heath.
Though purely
circumstantial,
it's enough to get
a search warrant
for the Heath's
current residence.
Both John and Raquel
were taken aback
from the fact
that we showed up unannounced
and we told them
that they had to leave
because we're searching
the property.
Raquel is put off
by investigators
and is clearly standing
by her man.
We're trying to find
in the new residence
that they were living in
anything that would link back
to that date when the homicide
took place,
headboard, lamps, end tables,
nightstands,
trying to see if we could
find any kind of blood spatter
to show that the assault
took place.
Before the couple leaves,
investigators ask John
a few final questions.
After all these years,
investigators know the odds
of finding any evidence
in his current home
that links John
to the crime are slim.
We were actually
able to find a pillowcase
in his current home
that was distinctively similar
to a pillowcase
that was found with her
26-some-odd years later
in the drywell.
The pillowcase isn't conclusive
but with the other
circumstantial evidence,
investigators suspect
it could be the start
of building a solid case
against John Heath.
It was John who had said
that Elizabeth had stolen
the $600.
It was John who had said
that she had gotten up
in the middle of the night
and said goodbye to,
their daughter,
however,
if somebody else
had actually killed her,
it's extremely unlikely
that she would've gone
and taken $600 or said goodbye
to their daughter
knowing that she was gonna walk
outside and be killed.
Investigators
continue collecting evidence
against John Heath
when suddenly they get a call
that brings a new sense
of urgency to the case.
We were advised
by Newtown Police Department
that there was a moving truck
seen at John and Raquel's place.
At that point,
he was trying to run.
So that became
an immediate concern.
Immediately after that the
arrest warrant was then signed.
If they don't stop
John Heath in time,
there may never be justice
for Elizabeth.
Twenty-five years
was way too long
but it was definitely
over for him.
John Heath's time was up.
In 2012,
investigators arrest John Heath
for the murder
of his former wife.
That's when all the things
start flying through your mind,
all these different thoughts
go through your head
all at once.
Just the thought
that I might've walked over her
without even knowing it.
The times that John had called
me up looking for her,
just the fact
that he was smiling in my face
and asking me if I knew
where she might've gone.
He knew exactly where she was.
To this day, it still makes
my blood boil
to even think about it.
John's bail is set
at one million dollars
and he remains in custody
awaiting his trial.
After nearly three decades,
will Elizabeth's presumed
killer
finally pay for his crime
or will this frail man
walk free?
Honestly,
he was in pretty bad shape.
In any trial, we go
into it with some concerns
with a case that is this old
and that is based
on circumstantial evidence.
You don't know how a jury
is gonna take a look at this,
you just hope they can make
the right decision.
In September of 2013,
nearly 30 years
after Elizabeth disappeared,
a 70-year-old John Heath
stands trial for her murder.
We felt like
we had a very strong case
but we also recognized that it
was a circumstantial case.
But the reality is that
in many cases that go cold,
that are 25 years old,
a lot of the evidence
is gonna be circumstantial.
I've covered
quite a few murder trials
and it's very unusual to find
the body buried in the backyard.
But sometimes circumstances
will only allow you
to do what's--
what's easiest.
It was uncomfortable
there in the courtroom.
John was up in the front,
he was in a wheelchair
at that point.
His health was failing.
John didn't testify
at the trial.
The defense tried to say
the dad was living
in the barn at the time
that Elizabeth disappeared
and that maybe she--
she wandered out in--
in the middle of the night,
walked out, and had some kind
of confrontation
with the father-in-law and then
he put the body in the well.
In a remarkable
turn of events,
John and Elizabeth Heath's
now 33-year-old daughter
is the sole witness
for the defense.
She described him as a--
a loving dad
and talked about him
working in the garden with her.
She loved him.
He told her
that he didn't do it
and she believes him,
she wants to believe
that her dad would never lie
to her.
She wants to believe that
he wouldn't do such a thing.
I can understand that.
The theory raised
during the trial
was that,
with a divorce looming,
John was afraid
of losing custody
of his daughter
and his property
which he had spent years
building and maintaining.
What's the likely
outcome during a divorce?
He's gonna have to pay alimony
especially because at that time
Elizabeth wasn't working a lot.
I think that that was gonna be
too much for him
to lose control of.
I believe
that John killed Elizabeth
that night in their bedroom.
I believe they might've
had some type of argument
and the fact
that it was blunt force trauma
means that he might've just
simply grabbed something
that was nearby
and bludgeoned her to death.
He then would've taken
her out of the house
and then actually put her
in the barn
and then buried her
in that drywell.
After three
long weeks of testimony,
the jury deliberates two days
before reaching
a unanimous verdict.
The jury found John Heath
guilty of the murder
of Elizabeth Heath
and he was then sentenced
to 50 years.
When you look at his age
and his condition,
that was a life sentence.
I know I remember
being quite delighted
when I heard that
he had been found guilty.
It doesn't surprise me one bit.
There was always something
about John Heath
that was a little frightening.
Something told you that you
wouldn't wanna get too close.
Despite the conviction,
the women in John's life
still seem to support
the man they love.
I can understand
how Raquel
and, more importantly,
how Elizabeth's daughter
would still stand behind him,
why they would still believe
that.
Even if they do not find
themselves in a place
where they're ready
to accept the fact
that John Heath killed
Elizabeth, at the very least,
they surely can recognize
that Elizabeth did not run away.
My niece did seem
relieved to know
that she wasn't abandoned,
that her mom did love her.
It's unfortunate that,
she never really got a chance
to know her
because they would've made
a great mother-daughter
combination.
I tell her stories about Liz
from time to time
and-- and she did tell me
one time
it's really awkward
to hear these stories
but she wants to keep
hearing them
because she did
wanna get to know
what her mother was like.
For Elizabeth's family,
the justice is long overdue
but sweet just the same.
Thirty years is a long
time to have an open wound.
She was the glue of the family.
Without Liz,
we just lost our reason
to be together. She was,
she was the one
that could be fun
even in the worst of times.
The world lost
a really good person,
someone who would've made
the world better
and it only takes, um, one--
one moment to change the world.
For more information
about Buried in the Backyard,
long buried secrets
ignite a murderous ripple
through a New England town.
It was actually a human bone.
It came out that they'd been
pretty savagely beaten.
He said that his dad
had actually killed them
and put them in that hole.
There was always
something about him
that was a little frightening.
And the search for answers
uncovers troubling questions.
Word was out that maybe
she'd gone off with someone,
but why would she go off
and leave this little girl?
Everyone
is a potential suspect.
That's over the top.
That is almost too emotional.
He was smiling in my face
and asking me if I knew
where she might've gone.
He knew exactly where she was.
Until the truth
is finally uncovered.
Newtown, Connecticut,
is a community
rich in history
and East Coast charm.
Newtown is a nice,
pretty New England town.
It's got a wide main street.
Very large stately residences,
a lot of farms, rural areas.
And overall,
a fairly wealthy town.
In April 2010,
a doctor and his family
have just moved to town
and are settling
into their new home.
They bought the property
and they began
building an apartment.
The new owner and his son
are ripping up an old floor
when something unusual
catches their eye.
They uncovered a drywell
in the basement floor.
A drywell
is a hole in the ground.
If the water then seeps
through the soil,
it can then go into that well
and fill it up.
Eager to see
what it looks like inside,
they quickly remove
the concrete hatch.
They saw several things
inside that hole.
They found some bedding
and they found some
type of plastic bag.
Curious what else
might be stashed in the hole,
they cautiously
pull the bag away...
and make a ghastly discovery.
It was actually a human bone.
It was a femur.
That's when
they called the police.
When we go out
to scenes like this,
we have our crime scene
processing personnel.
This is what
they're trained for.
This is what
they're extremely good at.
Will there
be other grisly discoveries
awaiting investigators?
They found
what they believe to be
more human
remains.
There was a plastic bag
over where the head area
would've been.
The crass collection of bones
makes up a full human skeleton.
Based on the conditions
of the bones,
they thought that those bones
were probably there
for quite a long time.
Initially, we didn't know
if they were male or female.
But I thought
we had a cold-case homicide.
We have to solve this.
After surviving a long,
brutal East Coast winter,
there's nothing more delightful
than the coming of spring.
And no place more beautiful
to celebrate it
than Newtown, Connecticut.
Springtime feels
wonderful in New England
because you have
a long, long winter.
And then
when springtime comes,
flowers come,
and it's just so special.
It's the time of year
John and Elizabeth Heath love
most of all,
enjoying beautiful days
with the daughter they love
and the animals they adore
on their stunning plot
of Connecticut land.
As soon as we moved in,
the Heaths came over
and said hello
and introduced themselves
and they were very friendly.
Elizabeth had her dogs.
They were purebred
Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.
So the weekends,
she'd be out
going to dog shows
all over the East.
Liz was a little bit
of a hippie.
When I first saw Elizabeth,
she was quite overweight.
She was very earthy
in the best sense of the word.
Over time,
like a lot of married moms,
Elizabeth loses herself.
And in 1984, she decides
to pursue her own dream
of becoming
a child and family therapist.
She was in school.
She was really excited
about being
in her last semester.
She was gonna get a degree.
Liz's life
was doing well at that point
and she started losing weight.
She lost a lot of weight.
She did look very different.
She looked much more
pulled together.
She was very,
very proud of herself for that.
I felt proud for her
because she was trying
to improve herself
and change her life.
On the outside,
this proud mom
has never felt
or looked better.
But things at home are not
as picture perfect
as they appear.
Her marriage
started going sour.
She was depressed.
John,
he was a pretty strange guy
and I think Elizabeth
really felt
she wanted to do more
with herself
and change her life.
When Elizabeth came over
to talk to me,
she was definitely unhappy.
She was asking
for a place for her
and her daughter to live.
I don't believe
it was for permanently,
but "Can I come and be there
while I sort myself out?"
And then she disappeared.
In April of 1984,
Elizabeth's brother,
Aubrey Gough,
gets a worried call
from her husband, John.
I remember John calling me up.
"Elizabeth's missing.
Do you have any idea
where she went?"
"I don't know."
"Do you know?"
He seemed panicked.
He was looking for her.
And I told him
it was not a total shock
that she disappeared
because this was
a regular thing in our family.
People disappeared.
When they wanted to disappear,
they were gone,
but they would always
show up again.
And she told me
she was getting divorced,
so maybe she just went away
for a while,
you know, couple days,
a week or so,
maybe she'll start to cool off.
Elizabeth's family assumes
she'll be home soon enough.
But after three days,
she still hasn't surfaced
and John reports her missing.
He said that
they were in the process
of going through divorce.
However, they were
still living together.
His daughter
actually said that
Elizabeth had come in
in the middle of the night
and said goodbye to her.
Once he started
searching around,
he actually found
that there was $600
that was missing
out of a drawer.
She left her dog behind.
She left her child behind.
You know, it's just weird.
The disappearance
of Elizabeth Heath
is baffling indeed.
I made some phone calls
to friends and family
to see if they knew
anything about her,
if she was for some reason
staying over there or something
and she wasn't there.
Obviously, they were going
through a divorce.
We thought there was
a prominent possibility
that she ran away.
The word was out that maybe
she'd gone off with someone,
but I also thought
that was highly unlikely
because why would she go off
and leave this little girl?
The whole thing
seemed odd to me.
Even though
they were getting divorced,
that was her baby
and couldn't see anything
driving a wedge between that.
But John tells investigators
he suspects another man
may be the wedge
driving Elizabeth away.
He reported that
just recently,
she had lost
a significant amount of weight
and it seemed like
she had a newfound freedom.
He also talked about a group
that she was hanging
around with
and he also said
that he thought that
she liked a male in that group.
He thought that she had ran off
with her lover.
You look at the fact
that the marriage
occurred so soon
and you become suspicious.
I mean, everybody
on Poverty Hollow Road
knew about it.
We were speculating
that perhaps
she hadn't run away
and that maybe--
maybe she's not alive.
Days into the investigation
of 32-year-old
missing mom Elizabeth Heath,
her soon-to-be estranged
husband, John, suggests
another man may be
behind her disappearance.
John specifically
mentioned that
he thought
one of the possibilities was
is that she had actually ran off
with a boyfriend
and that they had
actually gone off to India.
He had told the police that
that he actually wanted
to have more children
and that she didn't want to.
That was another reason why
she was probably
running away from
that life that they had.
We have to keep open
a possibility
that it was true,
that she had actually run away.
But as a detective,
we cannot get locked into
what the belief is
of a family member.
Not only
might they be involved
in what we're investigating
but also they aren't
the trained investigators.
Investigators work tirelessly
but find nothing to tie John
to Elizabeth's disappearance.
Then three weeks
into the investigation,
a call from her mother-in-law
may change everything.
John's mother actually reported
seeing Elizabeth
in a vehicle in their driveway
at Poverty Hollow
sometime soon after
she was reported missing.
Although the mother didn't
actually engage with her,
she was pretty confident
that it was Elizabeth.
John's mom tells police
that when Elizabeth saw her
in the window,
she quickly drove away.
That just makes us think that
she must still be alive
and still in the area.
Detectives
get information about the car
Elizabeth is seen driving
and begin searching
the neighborhood for it.
The only way
it would make any sense
would be that somebody
whacked her on the head
and she lost her memory
and didn't know who she was.
Maybe she's living
somewhere else
as a different person.
But as weeks go by
and investigators find no trace
of Elizabeth or the car,
everyone fears
it's just a false lead.
If you haven't
actually spoken to her
or looked her in the eye,
then it's like it didn't happen.
Aubrey Gough does his best
to comfort
his four-year-old niece
who desperately misses her mom.
She had no idea
what was going on.
She was the unwitting
victim in this.
We still had some
little glimmer of hope that
maybe I'll run
into her or something,
maybe she'll
get her memory back,
maybe she was kidnapped,
who knows?
Four months later,
with no indication
she's coming back,
John Heath proceeds
with the couples'
planned divorce.
That's when John
started having
a relationship with Raquel.
She was a friend of the family.
The fact that she was around
wasn't surprising at all.
It seemed kind of sudden,
but not surprising really
because they had spent
so much time together,
and she was very close
with the daughter,
kind of seemed natural.
John falls
fast and hard for Raquel
and six months
into the relationship,
he asks for her hand
in marriage.
Raquel
was the ultimate hostess,
I would say.
Raquel wanted the world
to come over,
was always invited.
Chet, John's father,
he was there a lot.
Chet and Liz
didn't get along all that well
because he was kind of creepy.
But it was a fun
group of people.
Elizabeth's brother, Aubrey,
embraces Raquel with open arms,
thrilled his niece again has
a mother figure in her life.
Always wondered
what happened with Liz
and was I ever
going to see her again,
but on the other hand,
my niece was growing up.
Everybody seemed
to be happy over there.
Kind of have to move on
with life at some point.
Still,
Elizabeth's disappearance
is never far from the minds
of those who love her
or the rumor mills
of Newtown neighborhoods.
I mean, everybody
on Poverty Hollow Road
knew about it.
There was lively conversation.
We were speculating
that perhaps
she hadn't run away
and that maybe,
you know, who knows?
Maybe--
maybe she's not alive.
But it was just speculation.
John and Elizabeth
had been in the process
of getting a divorce
and he certainly
had the motive,
the means,
and the opportunity.
A cloud of suspicion hangs over
Elizabeth's
former husband, John.
Yet there are no signs
of foul play
and nothing
that implicates anyone
in Elizabeth's disappearance.
We don't even know
if a crime occurred.
And if all leads
are extinguished
and therefore
there's nothing more
to follow up on,
there's just no more evidence,
there's nobody else to--
to talk to,
the case is going
to a cold-case file.
The more time passed,
the more the light dimmed
and we thought we'll never know
exactly what happened
or find out the real truth.
Elizabeth's family adjusts
to its new reality.
For 19 years,
they live with the unknown,
but on April 14th, 2010,
that all changes.
A forensics team
is meticulously excavating
the skeletal remains
found in the drywell
under a backyard barn.
They were bunched up
together, the bones,
and there was sheets
and the bedding.
It was distinct bedding
and a pillow with a pillowcase.
We didn't have any
definitive weapon identified
such as a knife or a gun.
Could it be
that for all these years,
Elizabeth Heath
has been buried
behind her own home?
Knowing that
Elizabeth was missing
from that same exact property
was significant to us.
We determined that
there was a strong possibility
that those were her remains.
Twenty-five years
after Elizabeth Heath vanished,
her brother Aubrey Gough
gets the call
he's been dreading for years.
I got a phone call
and they said,
"Are you sitting down?"
And they said, "We think
we found your sister."
It sent a shiver up my spine.
They were pretty sure
that was her remains.
They hadn't gone through
all the testing
and all that kind of stuff yet
but they were pretty positive
it was my sister.
Several days later,
the medical examiner
releases its report
to anxious investigators.
Through the dental records,
medical examiner
was able to determine that
the remains that were found
in the drywell
were Elizabeth.
The details
of her death are devastating.
There was multiple
fractures to the skull,
also some significant injuries
to the shoulder
and then also the forearm.
She was struck
at least four times in the head
and her jaw
was completely broken.
There was a break
in the shoulder blade
that could have only happened
from a strong compact blow.
As well as defensive wounds
from holding an arm up
while you're being attacked
and there were bones broken
in one of her arms as well.
Medical examiner
was able to determine
that cause of death
was blunt force trauma.
The injuries were consistent
with a crime of passion
that told us
that it was probably
somebody close to Elizabeth.
For Elizabeth Heath's family,
the reality is almost worse
than not knowing.
There was a cold pit
in my stomach,
now I know what happened.
She actually is dead.
With injuries that indicate
a possible crime of passion,
detectives will look back
at those closest to Elizabeth,
including her husband, John.
With his grief so raw,
Aubrey's memories of the couple
go naturally to happier times.
Liz told me
that she had met a guy
and how great he was,
and how nice he was to her.
They got married
right in the backyard
because they loved
that property so much,
they wanted an outdoor wedding.
It was a beautiful day.
Investigators talked at length
with John Heath during
the initial investigation
but without a body,
there wasn't a crime scene
and nothing to tie him
to her disappearance.
In 1984, John woke up
and he reported that
she just simply was not there.
One of the themes
that John presented to us
early on
was a concern over money.
When you look at
what's the likely outcome
during a divorce
as far as that he's gonna have
to pay alimony,
maybe he snapped
and ended up killing her.
So things were leading
in the direction
that John Heath was involved.
Detectives want to get to John
and his long-time wife Raquel
before the news
of the human remains
spreads through town.
Our initial game plan
was we acted like
we were just simply
doing some follow-up to this
cold-case missing person,
just to kind of
create some report.
One of the first things
that came up in conversation
was he had some
physical challenges,
he was on oxygen,
and more importantly that
he had a hard time
remembering things.
Raquel
kept filling in the holes,
and filling in the holes,
and reminding him.
In fact,
Raquel has a lot to say.
And most of it
revolves around Elizabeth.
Raquel actually
carried on this premise
of the fact that Elizabeth--
and that her family actually
had this history
of running away.
Raquel was just
absolutely convinced
that she had run away.
She talked about it
not in terms
of any type
of doubt or question.
Raquel is emphatic
and the ailing John Heath
doesn't disagree,
sticking with his story
from all those years ago
that Elizabeth
ran off with another man.
It was a common theme,
both John and Raquel
didn't think much of Elizabeth,
they talked about her badly
pretty much throughout
the entire interview.
Their berating of Elizabeth
was specifically the fact
that they didn't think
that she was a good mother.
They constantly
talked about the fact
that the reason why Raquel
had to babysit so much
was because Elizabeth
was not around.
To me, I took it as,
is this something that
they're trying to take us
down the road to make us believe
that she truly did run away?
At this point in the interview,
I'm starting to feel that
there's a stronger possibility
that they both had something
to do with Elizabeth's death.
Investigators suspect
John Heath
and his long-time wife Raquel
may be harboring
some long-held secrets
in the death
of his former wife, Elizabeth.
Now, after two hours
of questioning,
detectives steer
the conversation to the barn
where they recently discovered
her remains.
John, who claimed
to have a failing memory
is now as sharp as a tack.
He knew every square
inch of that property.
He not only knew it,
but his hands had a role
in playing in remodeling it
and designing it.
John seems to recall
everything about the barn,
except for the drywell.
When I specifically
then mentioned this drywell,
he kind of stuttered and paused.
If he's gonna come back
and say that he is unaware
of a hole in the basement
of his barn
where he has done
significant remodeling,
that just doesn't fit for us.
His diversionary tactics,
his answers,
his lack of concern,
his trying to claim
that he didn't have much
of a memory.
And yet, through conversation,
we show that he had
an absolutely detailed memory.
Unlike John, Raquel
seems to wanna know more.
Raquel was very inquisitive
about why we were focusing
on that area,
whereas John was not asking
those questions at all.
Now that they have the couple
locked in on their story
about the drywell,
Detective Jewiss drops the news
about finding
Elizabeth's remains.
They had two significantly
different reactions.
John continued on
with being very calm
whereas Raquel
had a very emotional reaction.
Throughout the interview,
it may sound like we are having
casual conversation.
But as trained interviewers,
everything that we are doing
is for a purpose
and we're trying to pick up on
different signs and indicators.
If you just listen
to that timeframe
or you just sat and watched
that portion of the interview,
you could look at it and say,
"That's over the top.
That is scripted.
That is almost too emotional."
But because we had established
a baseline with Raquel,
I think that was actually
extremely consistent
with what her personality was.
And it was just
an honest reaction for her.
John very much
is overly calm, unemotional.
Regardless of what he thought
of Elizabeth,
why he would not be
full of questions
about what happened to her
and anything that involved
the love of his life,
that barn, and that house,
you would think that he would
absolutely
have some detailed questions.
Raquel was doing that
at some point, he was not.
But we can't absolutely
rule her out.
But unless we found
some smoking gun
that said that she was
absolutely involved,
I was definitely more
on the side
that not only
was she not involved in it,
but she had no knowledge at all
about what had happened
to Elizabeth.
Detectives have saved
one gruesome detail for last.
Someone brutally beat Elizabeth
to death.
When we specifically told him
that the forearm
had actually been broken
and appeared to be smashed,
he actually lifted
his two hands up
and he brought them down
almost like
in a smashing motion.
And he said,
"So, like smashed with a..."
And then he stopped himself.
I believe that there's
a good possibility
that he was actually
reliving the actions
that he took that night
in killing Elizabeth.
Then he kind of stuttered
and paused,
and he started to present
the possibility
that somebody else
had killed her.
What John Heath
tells detectives next
takes their breath away.
He said that his dad
had actually killed her
and put her in that hole.
Hours into questioning
Elizabeth's ex-husband John,
he makes a stunning accusation,
telling detectives he believes
his own father
killed and buried her.
He claimed that his father
had a history of sexually
assaulting children.
Did Elizabeth
threaten to go to authorities
with the claims
against her father-in-law?
And could that have led
to her death?
Chet and Liz
didn't get along all that well.
They had had some arguments
at some point.
The story
seems farfetched to detectives
who suspect John is simply
trying to cast suspicion
on someone other than himself.
Still, they're eager
to talk with Chet Heath
to hear his side of the story.
There's just one small problem.
By that time in 2010,
his father
had already passed away.
John Heath was,
now presenting the possibility
that his father was the one
that had killed Elizabeth,
knowing that there's no way
that we could actually
track down and confirm
or deny those leads.
That to me points
directly back to him.
In the hours after
Elizabeth's remains are found,
investigators continue
searching
for any kind of evidence
to back up John's claims.
While the news
of Elizabeth's murder
quickly spreads
through Newtown and beyond.
We sit down
to watch the evening news
and it flashes
right across the screen,
"Human bones found
in Newtown, Connecticut."
And I said,
"That's my neighbor."
Very unsettling to know
that you were right there
living next door.
I just sat there
thinking that that little girl
thought that her mommy
ran away
and she didn't.
While the community
comes to terms
with the news of a gruesome
murder in their own backyard,
detectives uncover
some unsettling information
about John Heath.
About four to six months
after Elizabeth
was reported missing,
Raquel was added to the deed
of the home.
And certainly, that was strange.
The discovery of the deed
casts more suspicion on John.
Yet frustrated detectives
still have no conclusive
evidence to tie him
to Elizabeth's murder.
Because of the length
of the 25 years
that we're talking about,
and being buried in a drywell,
there was just no possibility
of being able to get DNA
from those things
at the crime scene.
Without the help of DNA,
investigators turn
to Elizabeth's inner circle.
I went to one
of her best friends at the time
and I said, "Do you have any
pictures of Elizabeth?"
Because at the-- at that point
I didn't even have a--
a visual picture of what
she looked like back in 1984.
One of the pictures
that she showed
was a picture of Elizabeth
sitting on the bed.
She's holding the baby.
Something familiar
catches the detective's eye.
What I saw right away
was that bedding
was the bedding
from the cistern with the body.
It's the bedspread.
Has the detective
just found the evidence
he needs to nail a killer?
From that photo
to that scene,
definitely it was a match.
It showed me as a detective
where the assault took place.
She's wrapped up in that bedding
so she definitely came
from the master bedroom.
Conceivably,
anybody in the Heath family,
including John's father,
would've had access
to the bedroom that night.
But we asked and John said
they had slept together
that night in the same bed,
and then he woke up the next
morning and she was gone.
That picture was
a damning piece of evidence
against John Heath.
Though purely
circumstantial,
it's enough to get
a search warrant
for the Heath's
current residence.
Both John and Raquel
were taken aback
from the fact
that we showed up unannounced
and we told them
that they had to leave
because we're searching
the property.
Raquel is put off
by investigators
and is clearly standing
by her man.
We're trying to find
in the new residence
that they were living in
anything that would link back
to that date when the homicide
took place,
headboard, lamps, end tables,
nightstands,
trying to see if we could
find any kind of blood spatter
to show that the assault
took place.
Before the couple leaves,
investigators ask John
a few final questions.
After all these years,
investigators know the odds
of finding any evidence
in his current home
that links John
to the crime are slim.
We were actually
able to find a pillowcase
in his current home
that was distinctively similar
to a pillowcase
that was found with her
26-some-odd years later
in the drywell.
The pillowcase isn't conclusive
but with the other
circumstantial evidence,
investigators suspect
it could be the start
of building a solid case
against John Heath.
It was John who had said
that Elizabeth had stolen
the $600.
It was John who had said
that she had gotten up
in the middle of the night
and said goodbye to,
their daughter,
however,
if somebody else
had actually killed her,
it's extremely unlikely
that she would've gone
and taken $600 or said goodbye
to their daughter
knowing that she was gonna walk
outside and be killed.
Investigators
continue collecting evidence
against John Heath
when suddenly they get a call
that brings a new sense
of urgency to the case.
We were advised
by Newtown Police Department
that there was a moving truck
seen at John and Raquel's place.
At that point,
he was trying to run.
So that became
an immediate concern.
Immediately after that the
arrest warrant was then signed.
If they don't stop
John Heath in time,
there may never be justice
for Elizabeth.
Twenty-five years
was way too long
but it was definitely
over for him.
John Heath's time was up.
In 2012,
investigators arrest John Heath
for the murder
of his former wife.
That's when all the things
start flying through your mind,
all these different thoughts
go through your head
all at once.
Just the thought
that I might've walked over her
without even knowing it.
The times that John had called
me up looking for her,
just the fact
that he was smiling in my face
and asking me if I knew
where she might've gone.
He knew exactly where she was.
To this day, it still makes
my blood boil
to even think about it.
John's bail is set
at one million dollars
and he remains in custody
awaiting his trial.
After nearly three decades,
will Elizabeth's presumed
killer
finally pay for his crime
or will this frail man
walk free?
Honestly,
he was in pretty bad shape.
In any trial, we go
into it with some concerns
with a case that is this old
and that is based
on circumstantial evidence.
You don't know how a jury
is gonna take a look at this,
you just hope they can make
the right decision.
In September of 2013,
nearly 30 years
after Elizabeth disappeared,
a 70-year-old John Heath
stands trial for her murder.
We felt like
we had a very strong case
but we also recognized that it
was a circumstantial case.
But the reality is that
in many cases that go cold,
that are 25 years old,
a lot of the evidence
is gonna be circumstantial.
I've covered
quite a few murder trials
and it's very unusual to find
the body buried in the backyard.
But sometimes circumstances
will only allow you
to do what's--
what's easiest.
It was uncomfortable
there in the courtroom.
John was up in the front,
he was in a wheelchair
at that point.
His health was failing.
John didn't testify
at the trial.
The defense tried to say
the dad was living
in the barn at the time
that Elizabeth disappeared
and that maybe she--
she wandered out in--
in the middle of the night,
walked out, and had some kind
of confrontation
with the father-in-law and then
he put the body in the well.
In a remarkable
turn of events,
John and Elizabeth Heath's
now 33-year-old daughter
is the sole witness
for the defense.
She described him as a--
a loving dad
and talked about him
working in the garden with her.
She loved him.
He told her
that he didn't do it
and she believes him,
she wants to believe
that her dad would never lie
to her.
She wants to believe that
he wouldn't do such a thing.
I can understand that.
The theory raised
during the trial
was that,
with a divorce looming,
John was afraid
of losing custody
of his daughter
and his property
which he had spent years
building and maintaining.
What's the likely
outcome during a divorce?
He's gonna have to pay alimony
especially because at that time
Elizabeth wasn't working a lot.
I think that that was gonna be
too much for him
to lose control of.
I believe
that John killed Elizabeth
that night in their bedroom.
I believe they might've
had some type of argument
and the fact
that it was blunt force trauma
means that he might've just
simply grabbed something
that was nearby
and bludgeoned her to death.
He then would've taken
her out of the house
and then actually put her
in the barn
and then buried her
in that drywell.
After three
long weeks of testimony,
the jury deliberates two days
before reaching
a unanimous verdict.
The jury found John Heath
guilty of the murder
of Elizabeth Heath
and he was then sentenced
to 50 years.
When you look at his age
and his condition,
that was a life sentence.
I know I remember
being quite delighted
when I heard that
he had been found guilty.
It doesn't surprise me one bit.
There was always something
about John Heath
that was a little frightening.
Something told you that you
wouldn't wanna get too close.
Despite the conviction,
the women in John's life
still seem to support
the man they love.
I can understand
how Raquel
and, more importantly,
how Elizabeth's daughter
would still stand behind him,
why they would still believe
that.
Even if they do not find
themselves in a place
where they're ready
to accept the fact
that John Heath killed
Elizabeth, at the very least,
they surely can recognize
that Elizabeth did not run away.
My niece did seem
relieved to know
that she wasn't abandoned,
that her mom did love her.
It's unfortunate that,
she never really got a chance
to know her
because they would've made
a great mother-daughter
combination.
I tell her stories about Liz
from time to time
and-- and she did tell me
one time
it's really awkward
to hear these stories
but she wants to keep
hearing them
because she did
wanna get to know
what her mother was like.
For Elizabeth's family,
the justice is long overdue
but sweet just the same.
Thirty years is a long
time to have an open wound.
She was the glue of the family.
Without Liz,
we just lost our reason
to be together. She was,
she was the one
that could be fun
even in the worst of times.
The world lost
a really good person,
someone who would've made
the world better
and it only takes, um, one--
one moment to change the world.
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