here in the midwest, several young girls went missing. some were found murdered. others were never found at all. lori, 20 in appleton, wisconsin. reina, 16. wendy felton 16 from marion, indiana. michelle dewy in indianapolis, indiana.

all of these cases went unsolved. officials believe only one man knew what happened. >> we knew he was responsible for several deaths. >> to get answers it would take a risky, unusual plan. send a convicted drug dealer under cover into a dangerous prison to de -- befriend an alleged serial killer. >> i'm not a hunter. >> at stakes. >> you want to find her. you want to bring her home and you can't. >> and one man's freedom. >> they don't just turn around and give out candy and say you're free to go. i went through hell and back. early each day donna greets her daughter tricia. >> i say hello to this picture

every morning. i say good morning every morning. i look at that and i can hear her say, hi, mom. >> tricia was kind hearted and smart. >> as a child, says father, gary, tricia lit up a room. >> she would sometimes just come into the room and spread her arms apart and say tada. >> they brought her here to marion, indiana to attend this small christian college. one spring evening she left her dorm room for a walk. on march 29th she came here to this shopping center. she bought a soda and a magazine and started walking back to campus. but then she disappeared. >> phone call came in late at night. and the voice on the other side of the phone said do you know where your daughter is? >> 19-year-old tricia lynn reitler was last seen 8:00 monday night. >> her disappearance rocked the

community and devastated her parents. >> whoever's responsible, we'll never know what they've taken away from us. >> her mother made a desperate appeal to tricia on the jerry springer show. hang in there and know that we love you. we're doing everything to find you. >> despite huge media coverage and their pleas for answers, none ever came. >> it's like she just vanished into thin air. >> tricia was never found. >> young college students need to be aware. >> christen zeller was a junior at iwu when tricia disappeared. >> we were advised to stay in our dorms if you were a girl. >> a week after her disappearance kristin and her roommate needed to go to the grocery store.

>> you thought it would be safe. >> yeah. a couple blocks away. >> it's not far at all. i can see the campus. what's going to happen. it was getting dark by the time they left the shopping center walking the same route tricia would likely have taken. >> we were maybe halfway up the road when heather turned to me and said did you happen to notice that brown van? and i said, no. >> then the van passed again, slowly. >> we still weren't alarmed. he came by again a third time. really slow this time looking at us. the hair on the back of her neck started to stand up. >> the van pulled up beside them. >> how close? show me. >> his wheels were on the side of the curb. this was me. this was heather. he leaned over. started to say something and at that point we're both like, run, just run. the girls called security describing a two-tone van driven by a man with mutton chop side

burns. officers spotted the van and questioned the driver, a man named larry hall. hall said he had been looking for a friend's address but the address he gave didn't exist. officers let paul go. september 20th, 1993, six months after tricia's disappearance, now 15-year-old jessica roach goes missing in georgetown, illinois. investigator gary miller got the call. >> we all knew we had something really bad here. we had an abduction. >> jessica's badly decomposed body was found in an indiana corn field weeks later. then, like tricia's, jessica's case went cold. >> there's a lot of times you wonder if you'll solve it. but you know you're going the keep going and check everything out, you're going to recheck everything.

>> for over a year, miller scoured local police reports. and then a break. a vehicle reported in a county nearby. the owner, larry hall. >> he had been involved in stopping some girls. those girls were scared. they ran from him. >> in the last six months, hall's van was spotted by more than 11 girls in five different towns close by, including those where jessica lived and where her body was found. now, miller contacted the police in hall's hometown to arrange for an interview. >> he initially said, no, you know, he hadn't been over here. >> miller had to coax hall to admit being near jessica's house. >> i said, well, would you remember if, you know, you stopped and offered girls a ride or asked them to get in your van? he said, well, he stops and talks to everybody. >> after a few questions, miller

took a gamble and put a photo of jessica down in front of hall. >> he immediately flinched. he turned to his right and put his hand up over his face like he didn't want to see the picture. told me he didn't think he'd ever seen that girl. >> later, a heartbreaking mystery -- >> there's so little that we can do to find her. i just want to bring her home. >> -- and the dangerous plan to solve it. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

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larry hall and his brother, gary, had always been a little different. >> look at you two little boys. which one are you and which one's larry? >> this would be me. >> gary. and larry. in a rare recorded interview obtained by cnn, larry hall recounts a tough start.

>> i know when i was born, my mother told me that i was blue, that i hadn't got enough oxygen to me or something. >> identical twin sons, growing up hard. in the hall home, there was little money and lots of problems. author hillel levin interviewed larry hall. >> it was a very cluttered household. they were raised with dysfunction. >> neighbors say their mother was domineering. their father drank and sometimes turned violent. he worked at the local cemetery. what was it like growing up next to a cemetery? was it creepy? >> no, not at all. not for me. you know, at 12 years of age, larry and i started working at the cemetery. >> as he grew older, larry had problems fitting in at school. >> he was always the backward twin. i was the more dominant outgoing twin. he hung out with what my wife and i and a lot of fellow classmates called the misfits or the stinky crowd. >> still, the boys were best friends.

and as young men, gary and larry developed an unusual new hobby as civil war re-enactors. >> met a lot of new friends during that time period and i was able to travel around and meet them at the battlefields either on tours and stuff. it was a lot of fun. >> larry was hooked. even growing mutton chops from his hairline to his jowl. though the re-enactments helped larry make friends, he still struggled with women. what was larry like around young women growing up? >> very awkward. quiet. backward. >> did he ever talk to you about

these urges he reportedly says he had urges about women? >> oh my gosh, it was absolutely -- it was out of bounds. i had no idea. >> jimmy keene grew up 135 miles away from kankakee, illinois. he didn't know larry hall, and he had no idea that their worlds would someday collide. >> third down and five at the 25 yard line. >> for jimmy keene, life couldn't have been more different. while hall was an awkward outsider, jimmy keene was a star. especially under the lights on friday nights. >> we would come out here, the lights would be on. the whole stadium would just be completely full and the crowd would be roaring and it was just a very euphoric, unbelievable high. the friday night games were the

biggest rush i've ever had in my life. >> a gifted athlete, he lettered in two sports. studied martial arts and inspired fear in everyone he faced. do you like having people terrified of you just a little bit? >> well, in that kind of sport, sure. that's why they called me the assassin. >> you were the assassin. >> yes. my nickname was the assassin. and the reason why name was the assassin is because i put somebody out at every game i've ever played. >> keene wasn't just the hometown hero, he was his father's namesake. >> my dad generally sat up here in the corner over here. if i made a spectacular play, he would always give me the you did good son. >> how much was he sitting in the stands? >> every game of my life. he never, ever missed a game or my practices. >> does that mean a lot to you? >> absolutely. my dad, he was my backbone. >> keene was as popular as he was athletic. you're a legend.

>> yeah, i mean, there's no doubt. they had posters of me all over town. i mean, everybody knew who i was with my sports ability. so, yeah, i was the most popular guy around. there's no question. i was voted most popular guy in school. >> jimmy seemed to have everything. except enough money to keep up with the rich kids at school and he only saw one way to get it. he started selling drugs and quickly learned he was good at it. >> you're making decent money, you don't think is this a wrong thing that you're doing? so i kept growing into it and growing into it and by the time i was 20 years old, i mean, i was sitting on top of an empire. >> by keene's own account, he was pulling in around $1 million a year. he was addicted. not to the drugs, but the money. >> it's hard to walk away from that kind of money, especially a 20-year-old. >> so he didn't. and that single decision would

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license plate, extra-hp. extra-hp. >> by the early '90s jimmy keene was on top of the world.

his booming business afforded him a lavish lifestyle with large homes, souped up corvettes. and an endless supply of women. >> i would have 30 or 40-k parties with volleyball nets, live bands. we'd have literally 1,000 people or more sometimes. i mean, these were gigantic, huge parties. >> you were the guy women wanted to be with and guys waned to be best friends with. >> something like that. >> back then, he owned this 6,000 square foot home. >> right behind that is a golf course. >> he says he didn't stash the drugs here. >> this is a walk-in closet. >> but there was always a place

to hide his fortunes. >> this was a hidden trap door that you could open. and when you would open it, you have another hidden closet back in here. you can see my old safe is still here. and this was pretty much just my fort knox room. >> for 15 years, keene's empire remained hidden and growing. but as he lived the high life, his father fell on hard times. nearing the brink of financial ruin. >> my dad, to me, was superman. and to see him in such a hurt way really killed me. >> so jimmy used his drug fortune to bail his father out. then continued to support him. >> even though it was coming from something wrong, i felt i did something very right to make his world right. >> but the money never seemed to be enough. and couldn't stop watching his back. by the fall of 1996, pressure of life in the fast lane was catching up. >> i had woke up in the middle of the night and i was laying there wide awake. i said, you know, i am tired of running like this. i said, i really just want this all to end. >> and it was all an to end, but not the way keene had planned.

just two weeks later -- >> i heard the front door rattle and i thought it was just the wind because it was in november and next thing you know, boom. whole door just blew off the hinges and then they came flying in in a straight-file line with their guns drawn and their black uniforms. move, we'll blow your head off. move, we'll do this. just one time. blah, blah. >> for jimmy keene, it was over. >> everything stops. it goes in slow motion. it doesn't feel like it's real. >> keene was ultimately dragged to jail. he pleaded guilty, hoping to minimize his sentence, and at first, federal prosecutor larry beaumont was willing to negotiate. >> initially we tried to what we call flip him to see if he could give us other drug dealers at the time. and i think he refused. so our reaction was to make sure he gets the maximum penalty. >> beaumont got his way. and keene got ten years.

it knocked the life out of him and broke his father's heart. >> any hopes and dreams he had had for me at that point in life were gone. he was crushed. he was very crushed. >> jimmy keene could not imagine a way out. nor guess that a man he'd never met might someday provide him one. november, 1994. wabash, indiana. it had been two weeks since larry hall recoiled from a photo of jessica roach. and investigator gary miller had a gut instinct. >> i really think we're on to something here. this guy portrays this weak, timid person, but, you know, i don't think he truly is. >> miller thought hall was vicious and as the investigation unfolded, miller also thought he knew how hall abducted jessica

roach. >> when he first seen her, she was riding from, toward the house, going down this way. >> hall followed and stopped to talk. jessica got scared and backed away. >> that's when he opens the door, grabs her. there's a physical confrontation where he overpowers her. put her in his van. and left. probably going up this road right past her house. >> in an interview in the wabash police station, hall surprised investigators by explaining what happened next. "i tied her up, but i can't remember with what. i took her pants off." hall said he raped her and led her off through the woods. i laid her up against a tree and put a belt around her neck and she stopped breathing. hall said he strangled jessica from behind so he didn't have to see her face as she died.

and that wasn't all. all of the girls looked alike, hall said. i cannot remember all of them. i picked up several girls in other areas, but i can't remember which ones i hurt. several girls in other areas. there were more victims than just jessica roach. hall said he'd also been near the campus of indiana wesleyan university, where tricia reitler had disappeared. i was over there because i needed to be with somebody. it was a small shopping center, i had a van. hall said he raped and strangled a girl here, too. then he identified his victim by pointing to tricia's picture. tricia's disappearance had remained a mystery for 18 months. >> we were just kind of sitting on the sidelines waiting for information to come in. >> with little evidence, and local police insisting on

another suspect, tricia's parents, gary and donna, still suffered. >> i know with each thing that came in, the urgency was great. and the heartache was great, too. and anticipation and the hope. >> hall's confession meant the reitlers might at last find their daughter and gary miller had found the killer of jessica roach. but the next day, hall changed his story. >> as i was talking to him, he said, i was just telling you about my dreams, that didn't really happen. he said, it was just my dreams. i said, larry, that's not what you said. you said this happened and you didn't like talking about it because you didn't like the things you'd done but you never mentioned it being a dream. >> but he stuck to his new story. larry hall was recanting everything.

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it's hard to describe, because you have a numbness, but yet you have the pain like thousands of needles sticking in your foot. it was progressively getting worse, and at that point i knew i had to do something. once i started taking the lyrica the pain started subsiding. [ male announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eyesight including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or skin sores from diabetes.

common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. larry hall had confessed to killing jessica roach, tricia reitler and two other women. and then he took it all back. claiming it was just his imagination. >> i did confess to certain

policemen that i had dreams, that i did things. >> but investigator gary miller had other evidence. like the witness who drove by this cornfield the night of jessica's murder. >> that person testified he was absolutely sure that when he went by here on that night, there was a van, there was a guy coming from the cornfield to get in this van. >> and a search of hull's house and van revealed he'd been casing out small college towns and keeping suspicious notes. seen joggers and bikers, many alone. check colleges, parks. seen some prospects. hall also made lists for the hardware store. buy two more plastic tarps. cover all floor and sides of van and hall wrote himself troubling instructions. no body contact. buy condoms. buy two more leather belts. find one now.

amongst hall's things, investigators found newspaper clippings about roach and reitler. possessions from other missing girls, and pornographic pictures hall had altered. >> in those pictures he had drawn what looked like a rope or belt around the neck of one of the people and the left side of the mouth he had drawn blood. >> hall insisted it was all just staged to make a play for attention. to feel important to police. >> i put a bunch of stuff in the van that i drove around with because i knew that eventually they'd search my van and find them. >> during larry's trial, his twin brother, gary, tried to provide him an alibi. still, the federal prosecutor

larry beaumont got larry haul convicted of kidnapping jessica roach. >> in the federal system, if you're guilty of a kidnapping, if that kidnapping resulted in a death, them under the sentencing guidelines, it's mandatory life term. >> the jessica roach case was over, but the disappearance of tricia reitler remained unsolved and her parents, gary and donna, would not stop looking. >> we walked the sides of the roads. we walked the riverbeds. we looked under the culverts. we ended up going to crack houses because somebody had a lead. >> if you see something on the side of the road, a garbage bag, whatever, it's like, could that be her? >> it was just a horrendous crime to lose your daughter, never find out what the heck happened to her. >> larry beaumont kept looking, too. >> i actually made arrangements on a couple occasions to go out

and look for the body. >> beaumont called in specialized military and law enforcement units to search. >> but we weren't able to find them. so rather than to give up, it occurred to me that obviously larry hall knew. >> beaumont needed answers and turned to an unlikely source to get them. he needed someone to befriend larry hall. someone charismatic. someone on the inside. larry beaumont needed jimmy keene. beaumont had sent both keene and hall to prison. now he hashed a risky plan that would bring them together. keene was ten months into his sentence when beaumont brought him in to talk. >> scared me. i thought this was some trick. >> keene watched nervously as beaumont pushed a folder across the table. >> i open it up. the first thing i seen was a picture of a mutilated dead girl and i flipped the next page and there was a different mutilated dead girl. >> and there was a portrait of tricia reitler. >> at that moment i looked up at

beaumont. he said, jimmy, we need you to help us with this case. >> beaumont wanted keene to go undercover to transfer from his low-security lockup to a dangerous prison. and to befriend alleged serial killer larry hall. >> he says, if you can get solid confessions from him and help us locate the bodies that are still missing, we're willing to completely wash your record. >> keene's mission? to learn where tricia reitler was buried. >> purpose of this operation was to find that body. >> beaumont made it clear, no body, no early release. keene would have to serve the rest of his ten-year sentence. but beaumont believed keene could do it. >> he's smart. he's articulate. he's not afraid. and i knew he wanted to get out. >> for keene it was a chance for redemption, to restore his family name, and says author hillel levin, to get his life back on track. >> this deal was a way for him to get home and it was also a way for him to do good. to kind of take this bad thing he had done and to somehow turn it inside out and make it

something that would solve a crime. >> but it wouldn't be easy. fair to say he was risking his life. he could have been killed. >> it was dangerous. absolutely. it was highly risky. these people in those type of places haven't got anything better to do but try to hurt you and kill you, too. >> keene was unsure, but a phone call home put his doubts to rest. keene's stepmother said his father had suffered a stroke. >> she said he's in really bad shape. we wish you were here. this is terrible that you're in a spot where you're in right now because we could lose him. >> keene needed to get home to kankakee fast and there was only one way to make that happen. he had to face an alleged serial killer first. >> i decided, you know what, however bizarre or how far out or whatever this mission that beaumont wants me to go on, i'm going to do it.

and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪

driving up to the prison in springfield, missouri, jimmy keene you didn't know if he'd made the best or worst decision of his life. >> i started to get cold feet and i looked at the u.s. marshal, i said listen, i said, how do we know beaumont is going to live up to his word? they all assured me he would. and i said, i'm not really sure if i can do this. >> but there was no turning back. and he needed to prepare. agents had warned him to be careful. >> we don't want you to approach

him for at least six months because he's a very cagy individual. if he senses one thing wrong, he goes into his shell like a turtle and you'll never get him back out once he's in. >> but keene didn't have time wait. he needed to get home to his ailing father. so hours after becoming a springfield inmate, he spotted larry hall and made his first move. >> i made it a point for us to bump shoulders together. as we gently bumped shoulders together, i turned around, excuse me, listen, i'm new here. you wouldn't happen to know where the library is, would you? >> hall offered to show keene the way. >> i just reached over and kind of slapped him on the shoulder and said, thanks a lot, i appreciate that from a cool guy like you. >> over the next week, keene watched hall's every move from his cell across the hall. >> and i walked to him and i says, hey, this is where i'm at. are you in this area here? he goes, yeah. i'm right there. you know, he bugs his eyes out of his head. i said, that's great. i said, you're right by me. i said, you know what, i told you you're a cool guy and i'm glad you're by me and all this and that. that's when he basically offered sometime if i'd ever want to have breakfast with him and his friends. >> keene was making progress, slowly gaining hall's trust. but life at springfield was

complicated. and dangerous. so keene figured out a way to use violence to his advantage. it was a saturday night and hall was in the tv room mesmerized by an episode of "america's most wanted" about serial killers. suddenly another inmate approached the tv. >> you could tell this guy had been in for a long time, a big buff guy. and he just walked up to the tv, looked at everybody in there and he decided he was going to turn the tv channel. and he turned it. i found this very interesting. larry looked at me and very quietly mumbled under his breath, he goes, hey, i was watching that show. >> keene leaped into action and knocked the guy out. >> i nailed him with an upper cut and i kicked him through three rows of chairs. he was beat up real bad and had to go to the hospital and they took me and threw me in the hole.

>> it was worth it and it was a breakthrough with hall. >> he not only now looked at me as a guy that he could look at and say, wow, he thinks i'm cool coming from him, that's a compliment, and now he's also able to protect me. >> now keene had hall's trust and had him talking. one night in hall's cell, he told keene the truth about what happened to tricia reitler. but what hall told keene was different from what some investigators believed. it was his story along with some evidence that created a roadmap i wanted to follow to try to figure out what happened to tricia reitler. tricia would have left this supermarket parking lot walking just a couple of blocks back to campus. somewhere along this road, hall told keene he got tricia into his van.

when she fought off his advances, he says he choked her to keep her quiet. hall told keene he blacked out and when he woke up, tricia was naked and lifeless. days after her disappearance, investigators found her blood-soaked clothes here. just one block from the supermarket. hall's own notes indicate what might have happened next. exactly one week after tricia's disappearance, hall wrote, cut out stained carpet, vacuumed van thoroughly, buy new hacksaw blades, clean all tools.

along with his notes was this address, 700 west slocum, in the woods halfway between marion and wabash. and it is possible that somewhere out here tricia reitler is buried. >> he said he got some lime together, got a shovel, got a lantern and drove her way out to the woods and buried her in the woods. >> he admitted to you he buried her in the woods. >> several times he admitted that. yes. i basically made him feel like it was okay the tell me his secret. >> but keene still needed the secret that would set him free, the exact location of tricia's body. weeks later, he thought he nailed it when he found hall hovered over a map in a prison workshop. >> a map with red dots over indiana, illinois, and wisconsin, and he covered it up really fast. >> lined up at the edge of the

map were a dozen wooden falcons. >> and i said, wow, this is is pretty cool, did you make this? he said, yeah, i make them. he goes, it's really cool, isn't it, jim? he goes, they watch over the dead. >> falcons to watch over the dead. and a map marked with dots. it was the information keene thought would surely lead to the exact location of tricia's body. that moment, did you think, this is my ticket to freedom? >> i did. because i thought, this is it. i've got solid confessions on him. we know specific details. we know how he's done it now. >> keene believed he had his answer and he'd soon be free that he was done forever with larry hall. that night at lockdown, keene decided to tell hall what he really thought. >> i told him he was a [ bleep ] sicko. i told him that he was insane. i said that you are one of the most despicable forms of human life on this planet. he at that point slid away from

me and, was, like really terrified of me all of a sudden. he says, beaumont sent you, didn't he? beaumont sent you, didn't he? >> keene had blown his cover. and his outburst landed him in solitary confinement. >> it took some time before we found out that they put jimmy in the hole, and so he was not able to communicate with anybody on the outside. >> by then, hall's map and the falcons had disappeared. worst of all, as keene was let out of springfield prison to face larry beaumont, he didn't know if what he'd learned was enough to set him free. [poof!] [beep] [clicks mouse] nice office. how you doing? good. automatic discounts the moment you sign up.

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during his months in springfield, jimmy keene got larry hall to provide details about several murders hall was suspected of committing, including tricia reitler's. but keene hadn't met the initial requirements of beaumont's deal. >> i told him this myself, i made it clear to him. if we didn't find body, no body, no credit. >> sitting in his prison cell, jimmy keene desperately hoped he had done enough. >> are they going to be fair and give me what's justifiably right on this, or are they just going to say here's six months? it was a crap shoot. >> without a location for reitler's body, beaumont had a decision to make.

>> i made arrangements to have him take a polygraph test, just to verify what he was telling us, was it true. which he passed. and he did make a legitimate effort to do what we sent him down there to do. >> so beaumont urged a federal judge to give keene credit for time served. jimmy keene became a free man and returned home to his aging father. what did you feel like when you were finally released? >> i was happy as could be. it was a very bizarre roller coaster that i went on. it was -- i mean, redemption at its best. >> keene had five more good years to be with his father before big jim passed away. >> we both realized once i got out that there is a better world than just always in a constant dash to make money. it was more like look, let's just enjoy each other while we're alive here. you know?

>> it was closure for keene, but not for the families of the alleged victims of larry hall. for years there was no progress and no relief for people like donna and gary reitler. >> as a parent there's the part that you've let her down and that you want to find her and you want to bring her home and you can't. i mean, we've done pretty much physically everything that we can to find her. and there's somebody out there that holds that one answer for us. >> beaumont too felt that he'd done all he could and that the pursuit of larry hall was over. >> there was going to be no further prosecution from the federal perspective. he's already serving life in prison. he was done. >> once again, larry hall had slipped off the radar, and it easily could have remained that way. except for jimmy keene. first keene's story of strange

redemption was featured in a "playboy" article and then a book written by keene and hillel levin. >> once we were able to write about what jimmy went through, then things happened. >> keene's story refocused attention on larry hall, helped reopen cold cases, and put pressure on his twin brother gary. now gary stopped defending larry and started talking. >> larry just like jimmy keene calls him, and he is. he's a baby killer. >> you think your brother is a baby killer? >> i don't have no doubt in my mind. >> do you think your brother killed more than jessica roach? >> yes. >> do you think your brother killed tricia reitler? >> yes. >> rihanna rison? michelle dewey? >> yes. >> as gary started talking more openly, detectives approached him asking for help. >> i went with the indianapolis detectives down to try to get my brother to confess.

he made me leave the room. he did in fact confess on tape to 15 serial murders. >> larry later retracted again. and while he can't ever seem to stick to one story, he does sometimes seem to have regrets. >> i didn't want to keep living my life the way i was living it. i wanted things to be different, you know, but i guess i didn't really do the right things to change the way my life was going. >> larry hall refused our request for an interview. he has never been charged with crimes against anyone other than

jessica roach. but keene's story has caused officials across the country to take another look at hall. >> in november of 2010 investigators from the police department interviewed mr. hall at a prison in north carolina. >> in that interview hall admitted murdering laurie de pughs and provided clues to finding her body. >> there's multiple agencies look into him referencing unsolved disappearances. >> larry hall may have had more victims than ever imagined. >> we understand it's even more extensive than we ever thought. not 20 but maybe 30 to 40 in terms of the victims. >> that leaves 30 or 40 families still awaiting answers. which is why, says levin, it is critical that serial investigations do not stop. two decades after tricia reitler vanished, her father, gary, now believes larry hall knows where to find her. >> i think if larry knew what we

go through on a daily basis, you know, wondering where she is, wondering what happened, i don't think he would have any choice to confess and let us know where she's buried. >> donna reitler is not as sure. >> yeah, he confessed. he recanted. he confessed. he recanted. without a body it's just another possibility. >> more than anything else they just want their daughter back. >> to have a place to lay her to rest, just to be able to sit and just talk to her. >> as for jimmy keene, his truth is stranger than fiction. he's gone from football standout to drug dealer to undercover operative. and now to screen star. with his story in development as a hollywood film. still, says keene, he thinks of the victims' families and hopes they'll find their answers. >> it's all they can do, is keep hoping. there was a glimmer of hope when

jimmy keene was involved here. maybe something else will still evolve out of this. maybe the things i've done and am still doing will still shine a light and give them hope at some point. ♪ west memphis police discovered the bodies of three 8-year-old boys in a drainage ditch. >> autopsies showed they died from blows to the head. >> a horrific crime. three young boys murdered. >> at 9:00 that night i knew that i would never see him alive again. >> three teenage boys suspected. >> i wanted to bash their head up against the wall, kick their face in. >> three teens demonized. >> that was the first thing that everybody started saying, that it