Death in the Dorms (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Katie Autry - full transcript

We were very proud of
Katie for going to college.

She was actually the first
member of our family that went.

For my family,
that's a major deal.

What was initially
thought to be a simple fire

is turning into a mystery.

All the students got out
of Hugh Poland Hall safely,

except for one.

It was apparent
this did not happen,

that this was done to her.

And me at 16,
I didn't really understand.

This was a horrific,
horrific crime.



We were playing
with a crime scene

not only just located
in this dorm,

but we were playing
with a crime scene

that spread the whole campus.

She did matter.
She mattered to a lot of people.

What happened?
What happened to Katie?

I feel like I still need
to fight for her,

and I'll continue to do that
as long as I'm breathing.

My cousin Katie was born
June 10th, 1984,

in Rosine, Kentucky,

which is where she spent
most of her young childhood at.

I always looked up to Katie
just in general,

just because she was
such a loving person.

Like, she loved so many people.
She loved life.



She was so happy all the time.

Rosine, Kentucky was,

you know,
it sounds kind of cliche,

but if you drive by and blink
and miss it,

it was one of
those kinds of things.

If you didn't know that
you were within Rosine,

you wouldn't register
that you're in a town.

It's just a stoplight.

We grew up most of
our early life there,

what we call the home place,
which is family land

that's been in our family
since, like, the early 1900s,

is where my grandparents
raised our parents and us.

Initially, Katie lived with
her grandparents,

Peggy and Dewey Autry,
and her mother Donnie,

and she has one sister, Lisa.

Katie is my cousin, and I'm
about 11 years younger than her.

My sister and Katie liked to
play dress up with me

whenever I was little.

They enjoyed that.

Katie was a very funny
and sweet person.

She couldn't stand for somebody
to be around her and be down.

She wanted to make them
smile and be happy.

My sister has always said
that Katie was her best friend,

and you can tell
just by the pictures of them

and by the memories
that I do have,

that they were very close.

Katie was probably
about seven or eight

when she went into foster care.

It was because her mother
was sick

and couldn't take care
of the girls.

Katie and Lisa both went
into foster care together.

They moved foster home
several times in the beginning,

before they finally went
to Jim and Shirley In man.

They were her foster parents
for 10 years.

When Katie lived with
the Inmans,

her life was a little bit
stricter than most people's.

She was allowed to go to church.

She was allowed to attend
school, school functions.

But Katie wasn't allowed to,
like,

just go out with
her friends or date.

They were trying to, you know,
keep her out of trouble.

When Katie was in school,
she was very determined.

She was an A, B student,

honor roll,
every club imaginable.

She was in track. She got
several awards for cheer leading.

I think she actually
got Cheerleader of the year

a couple of times.

Around here, there's not
a whole lot of opportunity,

as far as work goes.

You're gonna work in
a factory or a fast food joint.

Katie did not want to end up
in a dead end job.

She wanted more for her life.

Katie wanted to make
a life for herself

better than what she had.

She wanted to have
a family, kids,

and just be around
the people she loved.

Katie decided to go to
college to be a dental hygienist.

She said she wanted
to make people smile.

We were very proud of Katie
for going to college.

She was actually the first
member of our family that went.

For my family,
that's a major deal,

just because
up until that point,

we had actually
only had one member

that had graduated high school,

so for her to graduate
high school and go to college?

We had major dreams for her.

I'm sorry.

Katie decided to go to Western,

because it was closer
to her biological family.

She could come visit us
on the weekends.

♫ Ooh, ooh ♫

♫ Yeah, I know, I know ♫

♫ That the sun shines ♫

♫ Somewhere, somewhere
behind gray skies ♫

Western Kentucky is
a nice college campus

in a rural town
out in the country.

You know, there's a lot
of activities to do.

Western Kentucky is definitely
a fun place to go to college.

♫ When all is said and done ♫

♫ You'll always be the one ♫

Western had a couple of majors

that they were
pretty well known for.

It certainly attracted,
you know,

students of all talents
and academic abilities.

It definitely had
a reputation for partying.

It had a pretty strong
Greek life.

Katie was super excited
about college

whenever she first got there.

She was excited because
it was a new town.

She was excited because,
you know,

it was really the first time

she'd had freedom to do
whatever she wanted to do.

You know, all 18-year-olds
get excited

whenever they have
a little bit of freedom.

I did meet Katie right
outside of the Hugh Poland Hall

where we were both living.

I think we kind of bonded
over the fact that we both came

from a strict upbringing,
Christian household

with a lot of rules,
a lot of expectations.

So the opportunities, for us,
seemed to be a lot bigger

than what other students
may have experienced.

I definitely think Katie
was finding herself that year.

She was experiencing a lot,

having heartbreaks
for the first time,

but she was feeling more
comfortable with who Katie was.

And I think that
first year of college,

she was starting to like herself
a little better.

Katie was quiet and shy,
I think.

But again, once you got to
know her, she would open up.

She was a pretty funny girl.

She liked to laugh.
She liked to crack jokes.

She was well-liked
around our groups,

the different cliques
that we had in the dorm.

Katie was in room 214
on the second floor.

She had a roommate.
Her roommate was Danica.

Danica was a cheerleader
at the school.

They formed a really
tight friendship.

They kind of described each
other almost as like sisters,

you know, in addition
to being best friends.

♫ Yeah, I've always loved
that song ♫

Social life was a big deal.

Thursday nights were
the unofficial party night,

I would say, on campus.

Pizza parties,
movie gatherings, you name it.

If it was something that we
could do other than schoolwork,

we were probably doing it.

One of the biggest
things that Katie did

during her freshman year
that shocked me was,

if you knew Katie, you knew
she was terrified of needles.

And somehow, for some reason,
she decided to go

get her tongue pierced
and get a tattoo.

It just blew my mind
to think of Katie doing that.

I guess it was
her experience in life,

you know, just trying things.

Katie did get a job on campus.

We had a little smoothie shop
in the university center

where our cafeteria
and bookstore was.

You could always count on
seeing her behind the counter

when you walked through
the door in there.

It was the end of the semester,

and so a lot of students
were preparing for finals,

finishing up their last papers.

There was a lot of, like,

kind of end-of-the-year
partying as well.

May 4th, 2003,

somewhere around
4:00 in the morning,

the smoke alarm
in the building went off.

This was not an unusual thing.

Kids like to play pranks,

and the fire alarms
got pulled quite often.

At some point, our floor R.A.,

our resident assistant
came around

and started knocking on
all the doors.

I was in my dorm room, sleeping.

I covered police that semester
for The Herald,

and so we had, like,
a little portable police scanner

that the police reporter
would have.

And so I just had that
in my room,

and it just kind of stayed on.

When I heard the alarm call,
because I was so close to there,

I just headed over
just to see what was going on.

It was a chilly, brisk,
early, early morning.

The dew had settled
on the grass.

It was a thick, moist night.

Everybody's standing around.

We're all in kind
of little groups chatting

and trying to figure out
and understand like,

what's going on.

We're starting to hear little
bits and pieces of of rumors.

Something happened in room 214.

It was the blonde,
the blonde girl there.

My name is Kevin Pickett.

I'm a retired Kentucky
State Police sergeant.

At the time, in 2003,

we were assigned as a team,
the investigative team,

to assist Western Kentucky
University in the case.

On May the 4th
at approximately 4:08 a.m.,

the fire alarms went off
at Poland Hall.

The fire department were there
in less than 3 minutes.

The sprinkler heads flooded the
room and fire is now smoldering.

It's very contained
at this point.

Captain Bob San
born was with the fire department,

and he entered room 214.

It was just pitch dark,
and he saw something glistening,

and that was Katie.

And the part that was glistening
was a part of her arm

that was exposed that
wasn't blackened by the fire.

She was still alive,
and she was in a very bad place.

Firefighters sort of
cleared the perimeter.

They didn't want anybody
to really get too close.

And I was sort of trapped
in the crowd,

but I was able to identify
that that was Katie.

She was still breathing,
and a firefighter

took his mask off of himself
and put it on to Katie's face

to try to help give these
lifesaving measures there

until EMS could arrive.

One of the firefighters
looked up and said,

"If you're a praying person,
now is the time to pray."

And that was pretty...
you know,

a moment that has stuck with me
all these years later.

They took her to the,
I think it's called

Greenwood Hospital
in Bowling Green

while the police were trying
to figure out what happened.

When the officers
came in, the fireman,

we look up on the sprinkler head
and there's a rag

over the sprinkler head
to detain the heat.

So there's a lot of thought
that went into this fire.

This is the most obvious...
You got a crime scene.

Once she was at
the hospital, the medical staff,

they were immediately
struck with this...

These are not the burns
that happens

when someone falls asleep
with a cigarette.

It was apparent this
this did not happen,

that this was done to her.

She was stabbed 3, 4 times
in the neck on the left side.

She had a T-shirt
wrapped around her neck

that appeared to be
trying to choke her.

It was kind of over her face.
She was beaten.

There was a curling iron with
a cord wrapped around her neck.

So this was a horrific,
horrific crime.

This was not just a beating.
This was pure torture,

is what it was.

It was probably around
5:00 and the phone was ringing.

The answering machine picked up,

and I heard Shirley In man,
which was Katie's foster mother,

and she said
Katie had been in an accident.

So me and Mom and Dad
and Johnni, my little sister,

got dressed real quick,
jumped into the truck,

drove to the medical center
in Bowling Green.

We waited for
the doctor to come in,

and he sat down
and he immediately was like,

"She had a towel tied around
her throat and her mouth."

And me at 16, I was like,
"What does he mean?"

You know, because I didn't
really understand.

But he was talking to my mom,
and she was like,

"He means that somebody
done this to her."

Katie's condition
was very critical.

She was essentially
in a medically-induced coma

the entire time that
she was at the hospital.

It wasn't as if police
were ever able to talk to her

or get information
from her after the fire.

Mom had asked to see
Katie, because at this point,

she was fixing
to be airlifted to Nashville.

She looked like
she was sleeping and...

my mom started panicking and
screaming for her to wake up.

"Katie, get up. Katie, wake up."

They told us we couldn't touch
her because of the burns.

You know, we didn't want
to cause an infection.

So me and my dad
had to literally, physically...

remove my mom from the room.

What was initially
thought to be a simple fire

is turning into a mystery.

I woke up at
4:00 in the morning,

and I thought it was just
a regular rehearsal fire drill.

And then they actually brought
her out, and then

they were like, "Medic,"

and that's when everybody
knew it wasn't a joke.

Katie's body was burnt
up all the way from her inner thighs,

all the way up
to just above her breasts.

And you don't have to be a great
detective to figure out,

okay, somebody is trying
to cover something up here,

and the areas of concentration
would lead you to believe

it's some type
of sexual assault.

In the very beginning,
there was participation

from many different agencies.

There was Kentucky State Police.

There was
the Bowling Green Police,

and there was the Western
Kentucky University Police.

Those agencies
all met and decided

that Western's police department
would take the lead in the case.

Definitely, fire, arson
investigations and murder

were not the kinds of cases
that Western police

handled with any
kind of regularity, or at all.

The investigator's first steps

were trying to figure out
where Katie had been

and who she might
have been with.

They interviewed Danica Jackson,

who was Katie Autry's roommate.

Details is huge in
an investigation of this size,

so Danica Jackson was filling
in these details for us.

According to both police records

and an interview that I had done
with Danica that night,

the two of them had gone
to the Pike party together,

a fraternity house
not too far from campus.

And Danica told police
that at one point,

Katie got into a fight with her

on-again, off-again boyfriend,
Maurice,

and she slapped him.

She was drunk and after both
of those things, just kind of

had decided it was best
for her to go home.

Often at the fraternity parties,

they would have either
pledges or freshmen

that were designated
to be sober,

and so they were kind of there
to give people a ride home.

Danica helped connect Katie

with somebody to get a ride home
from the party.

It was about
1:30, 2:00 in the morning.

The important thing
of Danica's interrogation

was that they split up.

Katie goes home
with the sober driver.

Danica goes on
to her other party.

Danica was
pretty protective of Katie.

In addition to making sure she
got home with a sober driver,

she called Katie
later that night

to make sure she was okay
after the fight with Maurice.

So she calls her around

approximately 2:30 a.m.
in the morning.

Katie answers, Danica says,
"What are you doing?"

She said, "I'm back,
but somebody's here with me."

And Danica says,
"Who is with you in the room?"

She says,
"I don't know who it is,

but I just want to go to sleep."

Danica Jackson says,

"Put him on the phone,
I want to talk to him."

Danica told police that
Katie handed the phone to the man,

and he told Danica
that he was the person

who took Katie home
from the fraternity party.

And so at that point,
Danica said,

"Okay, you know, just make sure
you put her on her stomach

so she doesn't throw up.

She's been drinking a lot,
or if she does throw up,

then, you know,
she's not going to choke."

Danica heard another man's voice
in the background,

but she couldn't hear
what he was saying.

For Danica, this
wasn't some profound red flag

that something had happened.

Katie got a sober ride home.

You know, Danica was glad
she made it to the room.

But after Danica's interview,

the police were starting
to kind of zero in on,

you know, there was a culprit
or two in the room.

According to Danica,

we had two people in
Katie Autry's dorm room.

Police had to figure out
who those people were.

Investigators gather
evidence on the scene

and look for signs of foul play.

The victim was life flighted
to Vanderbilt Medical Center

and is in critical condition.

Once it's found out that
there was an injury

and that there was a fire,

there's more questions
than there are answers.

The entire building
was a crime scene.

I don't think anybody
really had any idea

that something like this
could possibly take place.

It came out pretty quickly
that it was more than just a fire,

and there was a lot of shock.

For me,
as a 21-year-old student,

you feel pretty invincible,
you know?

So the idea that this happened
to somebody was pretty shocking.

Students were walking in groups,

and we talked to some students
who were putting, like,

chairs in front of
their dorm room doors,

because they were scared that
somebody was still out there.

Western Kentucky University
was the lead police department.

University police are very
small,

and the chief of
Western Kentucky University

says, you know, "We need help."

And so he went very high up
on the chain,

and then we were called in.

We were playing
with a crime scene,

not only just located
in this dorm.

We were playing
with a crime scene

that spread the whole campus.

The two voices that
Danica said she heard

on the call
that she made to Katie

seemed to be a really key part
of the investigation,

but police had to figure out
who those people were.

And to do that,
they needed to start

investigating who was with her,

who might have seen them
or talked to them.

Some of us started doing
the interviews in the dorm.

The R.A. told police
that they remembered Katie

coming in around 1:30 or 2:00
a.m., and that she was alone,

and that she seemed
in good spirits

when she came into the dorm.

That really lined up
with their timeline

of when Danica said
Katie left the party

and none of R.A.s
or those working the desk

reported seeing
or hearing anything suspicious

in or around
that dorm that night.

Maurice Perkins was the guy
whom she was seeing.

It was obvious to police

that they needed to look at him
as a possible suspect

and make sure
that he had a clear alibi,

something that could be backed
up by several other people.

Katie really seemed
to like Maurice,

but I think
it was the difference

in the fact that Katie
was a little more sheltered.

She was in love with Maurice,

and he kind of more wanted
to play the field a little.

Danica told police that
at the Pike house party,

Katie had gotten
in a fight with Maurice.

I think he did care
about Katie quite a bit,

but I just don't think
he was ready

to settle down
for a serious relationship,

which is what
she wanted from him.

When we talked to him,
he said Katie slapped him.

"I never hit her.
I've never hit her back."

He told police that
after the party,

he had been with friends,
playing video games

and watching, I think,
a slam dunk contest.

Maurice's dorm mates confirmed

that he was with them
that night.

Morris had alibis.

He covered every minute,
every hour, every single time.

We just kept working the case,
doing some interviews,

and trying to
get leads on this case.

It was clear that
the police needed

to talk to the sober driver.

In the initial interview
with police,

Danica wasn't even able to tell
police the name of the person

who gave Katie a ride home.

She just described
what he looked like.

And, you know,
what he was driving.

The police talked to people
at the fraternity party

who would have seen her
or been around Katie that night.

They learned that Ryan Payne

was one of the designated
drivers that night,

and he was the one who took
Katie home from the party,

so he may have been
one of the last people

to have seen Katie alive.

I think they located
him in a dorm called Bemis,

where he resided.

Ryan told police that he
dropped her off at Poland Hall

and that she walked in alone.

He said that he was not
the one who spoke to Danica

that night on the phone,
and that after

he dropped Katie off,
he went back to the party,

but that things had
pretty much cleared out,

and so he went and hung out
with some friends

until, I think, 5 a.m.

Ryan's friends
corroborated his alibi,

saying that he was with them,
playing video games.

While Ryan was talking
to police,

telling them
about dropping Katie off

and what he did afterward,

he also said that there was
somebody else in the truck.

Ryan was borrowing
another fraternity member's car

to take people home,

and the guy whose truck it was,
one of his friends,

Stephen Soules,
was passed out in the truck.

When Katie gets in,
he's been out there long enough

to kind of detox a little bit
and come to his senses.

So they dropped her at
Poland Hall, which is not

that big of a distance,
on the either side of campus

from the Pike house
where the fraternity was.

So they drive across there.

Ryan Payne, Stephen Soules
is in the middle,

Katie's on the passenger side.

And so he drives her down there
and she gets out.

Ryan told police that he
dropped Katie off at Poland Hall

and that she walked
into her dorm.

Ryan also dropped Stephen
off nearby,

and he was walking in the
same direction as Katie's dorm.

Okay, now I'm on to
Stephen Soules.

Still don't know
where Stephen went.

"I don't know where he went,"
says Ryan Payne.

"I drove off."

Stephen Soules
was not a college student.

He lived in Scottsville,
which is about 20-25 minutes

from Bowling Green, and it
is a very, very small town.

Police first interview
Stephen on May 7th.

During that interview,

he had said
that he was blacked out drunk

and doesn't remember really
any interaction with Katie.

He said that a friend
picked him up from the dorms,

and he went back to his house

and stayed with him
for the rest of the night.

Doing initial investigations,

the cops interviewed
Stephen's friend,

and he gave Stephen an alibi.

So police have interviewed
lots and lots of people,

but at this point,
they're kind of at a standstill.

Because there wasn't a lot
of action in the investigation,

police were trying to find out
more about Katie's whereabouts

and just Katie in general.

You know, who she was,
and if anybody would have

any reason to want to hurt her.

It became public knowledge
that Katie

had been working at
Tattle Tails,

a local gentlemen's club
in Bowling Green.

18-year-old college
freshman at Western Kentucky University

worked at the strip club
in Bowling Green part time.

And that was the subject
of a lot of rumors.

Was her work there
a part of this?

There was a gentlemen's club...

I think it was
the next county over,

a really small dive bar,
basically,

that girls could dance in.

And I did know that Katie
had gotten a job there.

When Katie was in college,

she decided she no longer
wanted to be

a part of the foster system,
and she had herself removed.

She just wanted
to make decisions for herself.

Now she was responsible
for paying for her own school

and taking care of herself
while she was at school.

So she was working
at the smoothie shop on campus,

but she wasn't making
enough money

to take care of
all of those bills.

So at that point, she got a job
working at a strip club.

Katie was just trying
to take care of herself.

She was trying to
take care of her bills.

She was trying
to take care of college,

and I'm really proud
that she was trying to do that.

Police have the
responsibility to follow leads

and to investigate people
that might know anything.

The folks at her job might know
of people who were around her

or had something,
you know, against her.

What was striking
about Tattle Tails, the club,

is that it wasn't within
the confines of the city,

and it drew in people,
not just the patrons,

but the dancers from, like,
tiny little towns and villages

around Bowling Green as well.

Katie only worked there
for a few weeks,

but eventually decided
it wasn't something

that she wanted to
continue doing.

Police very quickly determined

that her employment
at Tattle Tails

had nothing to do
with what happened to her.

Even though that this had
nothing to do

with what happened to her,
all of a sudden,

throughout the coverage
that Katie wasn't, like,

a murdered college student,
is that she was this,

you know, stripper
who had been taken down.

That was hurtful and that
was angering at that time.

It was like the only thing
we could really focus on other

than her was the things that
people were saying about her,

because we wanted to make sure
that when she did wake up,

because we expected her
to be okay,

that she didn't have
to hear these things.

At this point, she was still
fighting for her life.

For three days,
she fought very hard.

Early in the morning on May 7th,

the doctors actually
had taken us in there

and, you know, told us,
"We're at a turning point.

Her lungs are our main concern.

She's not getting
enough oxygen."

And, you know,
they were trying to talk to us.

I got up and left the room.
I couldn't take it.

I remember sitting on
the concrete bench

in front of the burn unit
at Vanderbilt,

clutching...

Clutching
Katie's graduation picture,

just praying
that she would be okay.

And when I come back inside,

everybody was taking turns
going in and sitting with Katie,

and me and Lisa and mom went in.

Lisa was lying with her
in the bed, and...

...we stayed with her until...

until she was gone.

It was a hard thing to watch.

And poor little Lisa just
clutching to her, screaming.

And we had to literally,
physically pull her off Katie,

because she just...
It was our sister.

It was our world.

Because of the grisly
murder, new rules have been instituted.

Across campus, we put our dorms
on a 24-hour lockdown.

Kind of scares me, you know?

To think that this
could happen here

is just like...
It's like a horror movie,

you know, like, come to life.

It's really scary.

When word got out
that Katie had passed,

the police investigation

at that point
had kind of hit a roadblock.

They had interviewed
several people

and gotten
some potential suspects,

but each of those
potential suspects

had seemingly been cleared.

The day after Katie died,
on May 8th,

the man who was the alibi
for Stephen Soules,

he called police back,

saying that he wanted
to talk to them again.

He called the cops
to rescind his alibi.

In the beginning, he said,
"Stephen came and slept here

at like 1:00 or something,"
when it was really not the case.

So he told them
what really happened...

That he couldn't give an alibi,
that he had been up

until, like, 4:30 in the morning
and Stephen was not there.

After learning more about
Stephen's possible involvement,

the police know they need
to talk to Stephen again

and get some more information
from him,

so they go to his family's house
to try to find him.

The Western Kentucky University
Police, they have no power

outside of that university,

And so they had to go with us.
We were the state police.

We have state-wide jurisdiction

in the 120 counties
of the state of Kentucky.

His family says that
they haven't seen him all day,

and it seems as if he's kind of
trying to hide out,

you know, lay low.

Then I have to establish
a rapport with somebody

so I can get a hold of Stephen.

Older brother,

I can see it in his eyes
and hear it in his voice,

he's very concerned
about Stephen.

I said,
"Listen, here's the deal.

I need to talk to Stephen.

I don't know what he's into,
I don't know what he's done,

but I really, really
need to talk to him."

Next day, at 10:00 at night.

I'm sitting in my
house after a very, very long day,

and my phone rings, and he goes,
"Detective Pickett?"

I says, "Yes?"
"This is Stephen Soules."

Stephen was definitely nervous,

but he did agree to come in
for another interview.

I take Stephen in,
read him his rights.

I've got video cameras going.
I've got tape recorders going.

And so he starts.

He says, "I didn't do that
to that girl."

During that interview,
he initially told police

that he met back up with Katie
in the dorm lobby

and that he went up
to her room with her

and they eventually
had consensual sex.

And Stephen said that
he didn't know anything

about the attack or the fire.

Police said that they didn't
really believe this,

so they kept pushing Stephen
for more details,

knowing that there was
more to the story

than what he was
sharing with them.

At the time of
Stephen's interview,

police were able to use props
as part of an interrogation

as a way to make the person
being interrogated

feel like,
police already have something,

and it's in
my best interest to just

go and tell them what I know.

So I made some props
and I'm thinking,

okay, is there videos?

No.

Does he know that?

No.

So then I take VHS tapes
and I write

"Poland Hall security cameras,"
and I set them on the table.

So I got Stephen in there, he's
staring at them the whole time.

From the minute he walks in,
he's staring at them.

He says, "I didn't do this
to this girl."

I say, "The girl's got a name."

And then I showed her picture.

"I can't look at it.
I can't look at it."

I said, "I bet you can't.

But I want you to see her."

And he just broke down.

He said,
"Somebody made me do it."

Stephen told police that
he went into Katy's room,

had consensual sex with Katie,

but that while
he was still there,

a stranger entered the room
and then attacked her.

And hearing from Stephen

that there was a second person
that entered the room,

police recalled
their interview with Danica

where she talked about hearing
a second male voice.

And so police don't believe
this version of the story.

They suspect that Stephen
does know who this person is

and keep pushing him for a name.

Lucas Goodrum
is another non-student

who was known to come over
to Bowling Green.

He was in the same social group
as Stephen Soules.

Police knew that Lucas
had been at the party,

because Lucas and Stephen
came together to the Pike party.

Stephen was just,
"Lucas made me do it.

Lucas made me
do everything he did."

I said, "What did Lucas do?"

I said, "Who stabbed her?"
"Lucas."

I said, "You stabbed her
too, though, right?"

"Uh-huh. He made me do
everything he did."

Stephen told police that
he went along with it

and did this
because Lucas threatened him

and said that he would do
something to his family

if he didn't do
what he told him to do.

So after many hours
of interviews,

Stephen confessed
that he raped Katie Autry,

but he was made to do it.

He's scared of Lucas Goodrum.

So we've got to find
Lucas Goodrum.

Lucas was kind of
a small-town kid

who grew up
in Scottsville with Stephen.

According to police records,

Lucas had a history
of domestic violence

and had been ordered to go
to anger management classes.

Detectives eventually found him
and brought him into custody.

They brought him to the police
station for the interview.

When Lucas
was asked about Katie,

he does remember seeing her
at the party.

But once the crime
is brought up,

there is
a complete shift in him,

and just denial,
flat-out denial.

After the party,
they were pretty much

close to Poland Hall,

and they were kind of hanging
out there at the other dorm,

in the common areas with
the Scottsville crowd.

This is what Lucas
is telling me.

Lucas told police that
he was looking for Stephen,

but he ended up driving back
to Scottsville at that point,

since he hadn't found Stephen,
and went to his dad's house,

and he said he got there
between 3:30 and 4:00.

And I said, "What about
these tapes and stuff?"

I said, "You're on them."
He says, "Show them to me."

He called my bluff.

He said, "Take my fingerprints."

They won't match, 'cause my
fingerprints ain't on there."

Kind of like poker.

They call your bluff, you either
play your hand or you fold.

I had to fold.

Police seem to put a lot
of weight on Danica's testimony

that there were two men
in that room,

and they knew that Stephen
and Lucas had grown up together

and were friendly
with one another.

Lucas did admit
that he had been at the party

and that Katie had come up
to him and rubbed his stomach.

Lucas comes out,

a Western University
lead detective said,

"What do you think?" and I says,
"Guys, the only thing I know

is we've got a testimony from
Stephen Soules that he's there."

I said, "It's not my call.
Cheers."

So they put him under arrest
for murder and arson.

They decided to have a
viewing and then a memorial service

and then the actual funeral
for Katie.

There was so many people
at Katie's funeral.

All during the services,
literally,

there was standing room only.

Um...

It was touching to see
so many people cared.

Because I think that
that's important, is that,

you know, she did matter.

She mattered to a lot of people.

It was the morning of
the memorial service

when we heard
there had been an arrest.

They had arrested two boys.

We had never heard of
either one of these boys

before this time.

Soules and Goodrum both attended

Allen County Scottsville
High School.

Goodrum played football
and graduated in 2000.

Soules dropped out.

After we initially
heard about the arrest,

my mom then, of course,
started trying to call the cops

and find out more about
what was going on.

In Katie's case,

we really didn't have to do
a whole lot of research,

because the reporters
done most of it for us.

We very quickly became aware
that they were at this party

because they had friends there
that attended the college.

It became very well-known
that Lucas Goodrum

was the stepson of the family
who founded Dollar General

and that Stephen Soules
was a poor kid from Scottsville

who went to high school
with Lucas Goodrum.

Lucas's mom was married
to the grandson of the founder

of Dollar General,
and while Lucas didn't grow up

with that kind of wealth,
in the media,

Lucas was often identified
as, you know,

"the heir to
the Dollar General fortune,"

although in reality,

he was nowhere near getting
the Dollar General fortune.

The media narrative was just,

"Oh, there is this, like,

heir of this fortune
who created this crime

and was a mastermind and forced
this less fortunate boy

to take part in it with him,"

when really,
that wasn't the case.

But that being said, Lucas was
able to hire a big lawyer.

Whereas Stephen did not
have access to this.

He had, like,
a state-assigned attorney.

Police weren't
releasing much of anything

other than, "These two people
have been arrested,"

and so the community didn't know

if there was a lot of evidence
or no evidence.

And so the community kind of was
making assumptions on

guilt and innocence just based
on names being released.

It's not unusual for
DNA evidence to take

days, weeks, or even months
to come back.

So at that point
in the investigation,

police really just had Stephen's
word against Lucas's word.

You know, Stephen's giving
one version of events

that involves Lucas,
and Lucas is saying,

"I wasn't there.
I had nothing to do with it."

Lucas provided police
with some evidence

to help corroborate
his whereabouts.

They had the interviews
with Lucas's dad

confirming that he was there,

and he also provided
gas receipts

that he had from getting gas

on the way to Scottsville
from Bowling Green.

As far as Lucas Goodrum,
I had Stephen's statements,

I had Danica Jackson's
statement saying,

"I heard another male voice."

I can put Lucas Goodrum
in Bowling Green.

I can put him at the Pike house,
in contact with Katie Autry.

We know she rubbed his stomach.

He admits to his own
that he's at the other dorm

in the common areas
with the Scottsville crowd.

He admits to leaving.

And then I've got a gas ticket
and then I've got his dad

as an alibi, telling me, "Yeah,
he's with me at the time."

And, you know, the gas receipt
didn't mean it was Lucas,

by any means.

They didn't have no video.

The only thing I've got
is a father's statement

saying, "He's with me."

It was months later when they
finally got DNA evidence back.

What little evidence
was recovered

was some DNA, body fluids,
a little blood, some hair.

Every single piece of it

went right back
to Stephen Soules.

At this point, as Katie's
court case starts coming up,

you know,
we have Stephen Soules,

who has confessed to
his part in her attack.

And he's, you know,
stated in his confession

that Lucas Goodrum was there.

Lucas Goodrum is at this point
still saying he wasn't there,

he had nothing to do with it,
you know,

so nobody really knew

at this point
for sure what had happened.

Stephen Soules made
a plea deal wherein he

pled guilty to
murder and rape charges

and agreed to testify
against Goodrum.

Stephen Soules did take
a plea deal.

He took life in prison without
the possibility of parole.

Stephen pleaded guilty
to seven of the nine charges

against him
with the understanding

that he would testify
truthfully against Lucas.

And also a part
of that plea deal

was that he would not be
sentenced to death.

Even with Stephen testifying
against Lucas,

it wasn't going to be
an easy case to prosecute.

There was zero physical
evidence against Lucas

in connection
with Katie's murder or rape.

After more than a year
since Goodrum's arrest

and with the trial now
just over a month away,

both sides seem to have
much more to say.

We know that Lucas is innocent.
We believe him 100%.

Just the same as she doesn't
want to admit he's guilty,

she needs to realize
that he might be.

The trial of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky versus

Lucas Brighton Goodrum
was moved to Owensboro

because of the complete
media saturation

of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I attended the trial
pretty much every day.

Danica, Katie's roommate,
she actually testified that

while she was talking
to Stephen Soules on the phone,

she heard a second male voice
enter Katie's dorm room.

The key evidence or
witness for the prosecutors

was Stephen's testimony
against Lucas,

and for the defense, the key
witness or testimony was

the corroboration of his alibi
by both evidence and testimony,

as well as the fact that there
wasn't any physical evidence

placing him into that dorm room

or, you know,
connected to Katie at all.

One of the problematic things
was that Stephen's story

had changed several times.

That led to some doubt
being put on Stephen's character

and how much
he could be trusted.

When the trial started
to come to a close

and we knew that the jury
was going to deliberate,

Lisa was with me,
and she'd had a panic attack,

so I had to take her home.

We didn't expect the jury
to come back

as quickly as they did.

I was at home with Lisa
and Donnie, Katie's mother.

Donnie was watching TV.

All I remember is her screaming,

and so I run in there
and I'm like,

"What, Donnie? What's wrong?"
You know?

Literally, it was running across
the bottom of the screen

that they had acquitted
Lucas Goodrum.

There was a good pool
of journalists there,

and we all went into
it thinking that, you know,

Lucas is guilty.

Like, "Oh, my gosh,
we can't believe it,"

and then just...
All of us were just floored.

Once the trial unfolded
and saw the lack of evidence,

it really swayed us, and it
obviously swayed the jury.

They deliberated for 3 hours
and declared him not guilty.

I understand why the
jury went the way that they did,

but for us,

we felt like it was
the wrong verdict.

I believe that I will probably
never know exactly what happened

and get all the answers
that I'm asking for,

and that eats at me,
but I feel like it's important

that we keep asking
the questions

in the hopes
that we do get the answers.

I see this case as,
it's all about narratives,

and whoever establishes
the first narrative,

that's the one
that people stick to.

I just think that you
often see that, not just in this case,

but in lots of cases
where someone is convicted

by the court of public opinion
before they're given a chance

to face
the actual court of justice.

I believe in the justice system,

which says he has a right
to a trial by his peers.

He has a right
to representation.

He was acquitted,
so he's innocent.

♫ Have I forgotten how to be? ♫

I do notice
that as the years go on,

I remember the little things
more than the big memories.

I miss the way that
she would literally

spend hours curling her hair,

only to turn her head
upside down to shake it all out.

♫ Am I leaving me ♫

I miss the hugs, the laughs.

♫ I liked the old me ♫

♫ I loved everything I did ♫

♫ I was bolder ♫

She would do anything
for you if she cared about you.

I think that's really

what should live on
in people's memories.

A lot of people only know
Katie for what happened to her,

and even people
that didn't know her,

a lot of the times,
the first thing they think about

is what happened,
not who she was.

But Katie was someone
that you don't forget.

♫ Have I left the world as me? ♫

I would want Katie
to be remembered

as strong, determined,
fun, and loving.

You know, she's just
one of those genuine people

who could have made
a difference in the world.

She could have
literally changed it

if she'd been given the chance.

♫ Don't want to laugh,
don't want to cry ♫

♫ Just want a way to find ♫

♫ That spark, that life,
that energy ♫

♫ I lost somewhere ♫

♫ Along the line ♫