in 1981 a witness claimed she saw the brutal murder and cremation of a woman underneath a tree on a stretch of deserted farmland. but there was no trace of the remains anywhere nearby, and investigators were stumped. for answers they turned to the science of forensic geology. ♪ marshall, illinois is a small farming community just across the wabash river from terre haute, indiana.

the rich soil feeds vast fields of corn and acres of soybeans. the biggest landowners in town were the grabbe family. fred and charlotte grabbe were very prosperous. both worked the farm with their daughter, son, and daughter-in-law. >> the grabbes had a lot going for them. i mean, they had substantial resources, inheritance on charlotte grabbe's part, you know, and well into the six figures, so these were not poor small dirt farmers. >> fred grabbe was easy to spot. at 6'4" and close to 300 pounds, he dwarfed his petite wife. >> well, when i first got into the family, i thought fred was very nice, very polite. he was fun to be around. he really seemed to like me. they worked a lot.

charlotte worked from daylight to dusk. >> the grabbe marriage had its ups and downs like all marriages, but this one had some unusual twists. fred grabbe had an eye for younger women, and shortly after he married charlotte the couple divorced. later they reconciled and married again. but in 1981 charlotte again asked for a divorce and fred moved out of the main house into a smaller cabin on the farm. the reason for the divorce this time was that fred was having an affair with a pretty 24-year-old bartender, vicki mccalister. >> not exactly the most successful person in that part of the world. her reputation was not of the purest. >> on july 24th, 1981, charlotte grabbe left the house to cultivate soybeans on the farm. her children expected her home by dinnertime, but she never

returned home. when her children couldn't find her, they connected the local sheriff. fred told the sheriff that he had spoken to charlotte earlier that day near a storage shed on the grabbes' farm, and their conversation got heated. >> they got into an argument. he left the machine shed. charlotte pursued him in her car. >> she got in her vehicle, drove off and was last seen driving up the interstate. that was his story. consistently over time, that's what he said. >> in the shed authorities found charlotte's uneaten lunch on the tractor. her purse was also in the shed along with her migraine medication and driver's license. and a neighbor said she saw charlotte's car drive by earlier in the day but the driver did

not appear to be charlotte. >> they saw fred's pickup go by and charlotte's car right behind it with a blond curly-haired woman driving it. charlotte grabbe has dark short hair, straight hair. >> a few days later charlotte grabbe's car was found outside the indiana state line outside a bar in terre haute. police found no blood, no evidence of violence, but they did recover a fully loaded handgun under the seat. investigators learned that charlotte had written a letter shortly before she disappeared, and that letter contained a warning. my new website on squarespace is designed to help you tuck yourself in at night. it features guided meditations,

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charlotte grabbe disappeared from this remote field on her illinois farm. just prior to her disappearance, she asked her children to make a promise. >> if she wasn't home by 4:30, 4:30 p.m., we were supposed to come and look for her. >> the reason, she was afraid of

the man she was trying to divorce, fred grabbe. >> my dad would have fits of rage for assumingly no reason at all. directed mainly toward my mother, but sometimes toward my brother or myself. more my brother than me, actually. one particular instance i heard yelling so i ran outside. my brother and my dad were fighting physically, and my dad even took my brother by the side of the head and beat his head into the fender of the pickup. >> just ten days before she disappeared, charlotte left several notes in a safe deposit box in the local bank. in the notes, charlotte accused her husband of stealing some farm equipment and said she

didn't think she would live through a divorce. she said she was afraid of fred and also his friend and business associate, dale kessler. when police interviewed dale kessler, he said he was home on the night charlotte disappeared and that fred grabbe had been with him. when a grand jury asked fred grabbe about his whereabouts on the day charlotte disappeared, he invoked his fifth amendment rights and refused to testify. with no evidence of a crime, the official investigation stalled. charlotte grabbe became yet another missing person. despite a $25,000 reward posted by the grabbe children, charlotte's disappearance remained a mystery for the next three years. >> it's all i thought about from the time i got up till the time i went to bed every night, how am i going to find my mom? she could be alive out there

somewhere. probably not, but she might be, and i had to go on that possibility. and i kept thinking, you know, if it were me she would never give up. >> with nowhere else to turn, in 1984 charlotte's daughter hired a private detective, charles pierson. pierson discovered that fred grabbe had recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend, vicki mccallister, and pierson tracked her down in indiana. almost from the start, vicki mccalister seems anxious to talk about her life with fred grabbe. >> he was able to play on her emotions and to draw from her a horrible secret. >> it was the secret of charlotte grabbe's disappearance and the story was so horrific, it was difficult to believe. vicki claimed that she went to

the shed to borrow a steel drum from fred to haul some trash. when they heard charlotte drive up, fred told vicki to hide behind a tractor. charlotte and fred immediately began to argue and soon turned violent. >> from what vicki mccalister told us, fred actually choked charlotte several times and would let up on the pressure and let her regain consciousness and would choke her again, making comments to her the whole time. >> vicki said that after grabbe choked charlotte to death, he sodomized her. afterwards he used a grease gun to fill every orifice of her body to make it more flammable. he then put her body in the

trash barrel and headed toward the river. vicki drove charlotte's car and abandoned it over the state line in indiana. later that night, fred doused the body in diesel fuel and while vicki watched fred burned the body. the fire lasted throughout the night. eventually only charlotte's skull remained. grabbe threw it in the wabash river saying it would make good fish food. he then rolled the barrel into the river. >> the story when you hear the whole thing, it's really hard to believe. >> mccalister had plenty of motive to tell a story that would put fred grabbe in prison.

>> there's no greater wrath than that of a woman. she may have originally been concerned with a long-term relationship that lasted for a certain period of time and then it ended. i think she was angry. >> vicki came to expect, if not be told, that she would share in the dynasty, the financial dynasty of the grabbe family, that she would become a part of everything, and that she and fred would live happily ever after. i mean, that's the story that guys tell girls and girls often believe. >> in exchange for her testimony, vicki mccalister was offered total immunity, relocation, and a new identity. and if grabbe was convicted, mccalister could claim the $25,000 reward offered by the grabbe children. >> many times you have one person's word against another. it's always good to have some

type of physical evidence. >> but there was another living witness to the events of that terrible night three years earlier, and that evidence would tell if vicki mccalister's story actually had the ring of truth. ready for another reason to switch to t-mobile. get 2 lines of unlimited 4g lte data for just $100 bucks a month. it's america's best unlimited family plan. and it's only at t-mobile.

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fred grabbe's ex-girlfriend vicki mccalister took police to the scene of the cremation which she says took place on the banks of the wabash river, just underneath this mature maple tree. but after three years there were no retains found anywhere in the vicinity. >> i was with one of the attorney generals that was assisting our state's attorney in the prosecution of the case, and i made a comment to him just wondering if at this burn site if there was any possibility that petroleum products from the diesel fuel that was used could still be recovered in the soil around the site. >> since the wabash river frequently overflows in the area of the maple tree, any traces of the diesel fuel in the soil would have long been washed away. but one piece of potential evidence survived. the maple tree under which the

funeral pyre allegedly burned. >> trees make excellent history books because they show us when events occurred nearby the tree. they can explain to us exactly when different events happened. >> in this photo, sheriff crumrin is standing on the spot the barrel was allegedly placed. was there anyway for science to corroborate vicki mccalister's story? in the spring and summer roots transport water and nutrients from the surrounding soil, up through the trunk, and into a tree's branches where they fuel the growth of very large cells. when the tree goes dormant in late summer and fall, it produces smaller, more dense cells. this cycle produces the familiar rings we see when we cut a tree branch or trunk. each ring indicates another year has passed.

if the tree absorbed diesel fuel from the gruesome funeral pyre, was there any way to tell? >> diesel fuel is a toxic material to trees. it will either kill the cells or it will affect their growth rate, their metabolism adversely. when it's absorbed by the tree, it will slow the growth rate of the cells that it's in contact with. >> investigators cut five branches from the tree and when they counted back through the growth rings, they saw something startling. >> in 1981 the growth of those branches had dramatically slowed from what it had been in previous years. >> growth rings from the year charlotte disappeared were much thinner than earlier rings. but there was no way of knowing

why this was so. to find out, pieces of each branch were ground into sawdust and given to dr. donald dickerson, an organic chemist. dickerson dissolved the samples and injected the sample into a gas chromatograph. the results indicated the presence of hydrocarbons, compounds indicative of petroleum products. even more startling, only two of the five branches showed traces of petroleum, the ones on the side of the tree where vicki mccalister said the cremation took place. a unique forensic approach had uncovered evidence that matched vicki mccalister's bizarre and horrifying story exactly. >> heck of a coincidence.

>> but the story doesn't end here. another mysterious fire and attempted prison breakout and the murder of one of the grabbe children were all to impact fred grabbe's trial. there comes a time in everyone's life when you want more. like a new meticulously engineered german sedan. finely crafted. exactingly precise. desire for such things often outpaces one's means. until now. hey matt, new jetta? yeah. introducing lots of new. the new volkswagen jetta. isn't it time for german engineering?

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when scientists discovered hydrocarbons in the maple tree next to where charlotte grabbe's body was allegedly incinerated, fred grabbe was arrested and charged with murder. the star witness was fred grabbe's ex-girlfriend vicki mccalister, who was given immunity to testify. her story both fascinated and horrified courtroom spectators. >> the first time i think i heard about the tree was when it came out in court, and i thought, wow, you know, that -- that really to me proves vicki was telling the truth about everything. >> the motive? money. fred grabbe had no desire to split the family assets with his wife, even though it was charlotte's inheritance which comprised a bulk of their holdings.

>> most of the farm ground that they had, it's my understanding belonged to her through her side of the family, and fred was going to lose a lot of money, basically, is what it all amounted to. >> if the love of money is the root of all evil, the roots of a maple tree soaking up errant diesel fuel sealed fred grabbe's fate. fred grabbe was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. in a bizarre twist to a bizarre story, fred grabbe's new girlfriend, barbara graham, armed with a gun arrived at the jail one night and attempted to get him out of prison. she fired five shots, wounding one deputy in the leg. >> she was able to get on top of her and said, don't make me kill you, and at that time the struggle ceased. >> for that offense, barbara graham was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

two months later the home fred and charlotte shared and the house their children jeff and cindy had built next door burned to the ground. arson investigators discovered both fires were deliberately set. >> oh, i believe fred grabbe probably had some involvement with it, not setting the fires directly, but i believe he probably had some involvement that we'll never know probably. >> fred grabbe's lawyers appealed the first verdict and on a technicality won a new trial. a month before the second trial fred's son, jeff grabbe, who had testified against his father at the first trial, was found murdered in california with three bullet wounds to the chest. to this day some believe fred grabbe had a hand in his son's murder, although fred denies it. >> i don't know if he had that

kind of pull with people he could send out to california. i don't think so, but i -- there is a lot of things i don't know. >> the second trial ended the same way as the first. fred grabbe was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 75 years in prison. no one has ever been charged with jeff grabbe's murder and no trace of charlotte grabbe's remains have ever been recovered. vicki mccalister claimed her reward then left the area, relocated at the state's expense. she continues to fear that fred grabbe will somehow take revenge, even from behind prison bars. the maple tree still grows not far from the wabash river.

>> the maple tree alive and growing was one thing, one creation that fred grabbe could not intimidate, could not reach, could not destroy. come by bill mobrey motors on the expressway in brownsville and prove it to yourself. we really do have great service and low prices. >> when a texas car dealer was found shot to death in his bed, it looked at first like suicide. but a closer examination of the evidence convinced investigators the man had been murdered in cold blood. a decade would pass and a family would be ripped apart before a jury rendered final judgment on what really happened that hot texas night.