he allowed his victim to write a last will and testament to her family. then taunted them with chilling phone calls. >> did you receive the letter today? >> yes. >> okay, so you know now that this is not a fake phone call. >> a traced line couldn't find the kidnapper, but scientists would find a clue in the victim's last words. 17-year-old shari smith had her whole life before her, in two

days she would have the honor of singing at her graduation at lexington high school. then she would sail off on a cruise with her classmates. >> she was kind of the cement of our family, she held us together. >> then, shari arrived home from a graduation pool party. she stopped at the mail box from 700 feet from her house. her father was watching from his home office as she pulled in. >> five or ten minutes had passed, and all of the sudden i was aware that shari had not come to the house yet. something just told me something was wrong and i ran through the house and into the garage and got in my car and cranked it up and ran to the mail box. >> bob smith found his daughter's door open, the motor running and shari's purse on the seat. >> i saw bare foot prints going to the mail box, but none coming back. >> and he said honey, i don't

know how to tell you this but shari's car is at the end of the driveway running and she is not in it. and i can remember saying oh, my god, not my shari. >> panicstricken, the family called the lexington county sheriff's office. >> there was a supply of mail that had fallen out, and she was probably kidnapped at that point. >> the lexington county sheriff's office immediately organized the largest manhunt in south carolina history. >> we really didn't know whether shari knew her abductor or not. we had no reason to suspect she had run away. >> whoever it is who has our daughter, shari, we want other back, we miss her, we love her. >> all her parents could do was wait. >> the smith family was a very influential family in the community. and there was no reason that we

could determine why she would be kidnapped other than maybe for ransom purposes. so we anticipated that the individual, or individuals responsible would make contact with the family. >> the sheriff's suspicions proved right. two days after shari had been kidnapped the smiths received a phone call. a man with a strangely distorted voice demanded to speak to mrs. smith. to prove the call was not a hoax he described the black and yellow bathing suit shari was wearing underneath her shorts and shirt. >> he said he would release her. he said that she was fine, they were watching tv. >> he made no ransom demand. but he told the smiths that they would be receiving a letter in the morning. >> my reaction was, that individual is sophisticated with the crime he is committing.

it is not the first time he has engaged in a sex crime like this. probably has been thinking about this for quite sometime. >> agent walker agreed that the best hope of finding shari would come from the letter her abductor was promising was coming. >> we went through the post office in lexington and everybody looked through the mail. we all sorted through the mail until we found the letter addressed to the smiths. >> inside was a letter in shari's handwriting. at the top of the first page was the heading "last will and testament." ♪ [ male announcer ] you wouldn't ignore signs of damage in your home. are you sure you're not ignoring them in your body?

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shari smith's abductor had allowed the teenager to write a two-page letter to her family in which she told them how much she loved them. >> i had a very helpless feeling come over me. but i was not without hope. i held out my hope to the end, but i was totally helpless. the words "last will and testament" knocked me back and i was totally helpless. i did not know what to do or say, and then i had to -- the tough part was i had to show the

letter to my wife. >> "please don't ever let this ruin your lives," shari's letter read. "just keep living one day at a time for jesus. some good will come out of this. my thoughts will always be with and in you." in parentheses were the words "casket closed." >> sheriff metz immediately sent the letter to the south carolina law enforcement crime lab, hoping forensic document examiner mickey dawson could find some clues. >> i was looking for handprinting or handwriting. i was looking to see if i could find any trace evidence in the hairs and fibers. >> after the letter arrived, the abductor called the smith family again. >> have you received the mail today? >> yes, i have. >> do you believe me now? >> well, i'm not really sure i

believe you because i haven't had any word from shari. and i need to know that shari is well. >> you will know in two or three days. >> why two or three days? >> call the search off. >> later that same evening, he called once more, saying that shari was alive and implied he would release her soon. >> i want to tell you one other thing. shari is now part of me. physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, our souls are one now. >> the call was traced to a public pay phone at a drugstore in downtown lexington. but in 1985, trap and trace required 15 minutes for authorities to trace the call and reach its location. the abductor remained on the phone for a very short time. five days after shari's abduction, the kidnapper called

again and spoke to both shari's mother and her 21-year-old sister, dawn. >> at 4:58 a.m. -- no, i'm sorry, hold on. 3:10 a.m. saturday, the 1st of june, she handwrote what you received. 4:58 a.m. saturday, the 1st of june -- >> okay. saturday the 1st of june, 4:58 a.m. >> became one soul. >> became one soul. >> what does that mean? >> no questions now. please. to sheriff metz, search no more. blessings are near. >> do not kill my daughter, please. i mean, please. >> we love and miss y'all. good night. >> wait a minute. >> he's gone, mom. >> the next day, he made another call. >> hello? >> listen carefully. take highway 378 west to traffic

circle. take prosperity exit. go 1 1/2 miles. turn right at sign. moose lodge number 103. go one quarter mile. turn left at white frame building. go to backyard. six feet beyond, we're waiting. god chose us. >> shari's body was found in the backyard. on the body were the yellow top and white shorts she'd last been seen in. the autopsy revealed shari had been dead for several days. investigators believe that shari's abductor inadvertently revealed when he killed her when he corrected himself about the time she wrote the letter. they believe shari died at 4:58 on the morning of june 1st, two hours after she wrote the letter.

if that were the case, shari remained alive for only 12 hours after her abduction. >> one line i'll never forget, when she says, "casket closed." can you imagine what was going through her mind knowing what she was going to face? she knew at that point that her body would be in a condition that the casket had to be closed. >> the medical examiner found residue of duct tape on her face, suggesting that the cause of death was suffocation. >> her hair was substantially shorter. he had to cut the duct tape out of her hair to keep from leaving it behind. and that told me that he had some experience, at least, or some level of criminal sophistication. the profile that we developed of him described a white male, unsuccessfully married, probably not currently married, mid to late 20s to maybe even as old as early 30s, who had a history of sex crimes. >> the signal analysis unit of

the fbi engineering section told investigators that the voice distortion of the abductor's voice was accomplished by something called a variable speed control device. >> we believed either through employment or through his technical education had some sort of background or experience in electronics. >> investigators believed the killer had everything planned out and was reading from a script, clearly evident when he corrected himself about the time of shari's letter. >> 4:58 a.m. -- no, i'm sorry. hold on that. >> as a final assault to the family, the killer called them on the night of shari's funeral. it was a collect call. >> he wanted to tell us just how he had murdered shari. and he said, "well, can you take it?" who could take it? but we didn't have a choice. we had to try to keep him on the line to find out where he was.

>> a few weeks later, the killer called again. this time, he no longer wanted to talk about shari.

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after the funeral of 17-year-old shari smith, her

killer continued to taunt the family by phone. but he no longer had any interest in shari. >> have you heard about debra may helmick? >> no. >> the 10-year-old? h-e-l-m-i-c-k? >> richland county? >> yeah. >> uh-huh. >> listen carefully. >> two weeks after shari smith was kidnapped, debra may helmick was abducted in front of her parent's trailer, 24 miles from the smith's home. in richland county. her father was inside, just 20 feet away. neighbors saw someone pull up in a car, get out and grab debra before speeding off. like shari, debra was a pretty blue-eyed blond. unlike shari, debra was only a child. >> turn right. last dirt road before you come to the stop sign at two notch road. go through chains and no trespassing sign.

go 50 yards and to the left. go 10 yards. debra may is waiting. god forgive us all. >> i felt like we were dealing with the same individual. >> investigators now knew they were hunting a serial killer. at the south carolina law enforcement division, scientists were still going over their only piece of hard evidence, shari's last will and testament. it had been written on lined paper from a legal pad. forensic document examiner, mickey dawson, believed latent images, or indentions, from a previous page of the pad might be revealed with the use of an electrostatic detection apparatus. >> when i received the letter, i took it into the laboratory and opened it up on sterile paper.

and then each sheet would individually go into a humidified box. >> the document was then placed on top of a brass plate, and the magnetic field activated. the paper was then brushed with a substance similar to fingerprint powder. >> through the combination of all of this, latent images form. >> dawson's first try yielded what appeared to be a grocery list. >> there was some bills to pay and there was a list of names and telephone numbers left someone to call in case of an emergency. >> dawson was able to make out what appeared to be a partial telephone number. the first set of numbers, 205, was the area code for alabama. the next three, 837, was the exchange for huntsville. but they only had three of the last four numbers to finish the sequence.

>> they just plugged the 9 digits in for the seventh. and found a telephone number that was a good number. >> finally called this guy in alabama and said, "do you have any relatives in south carolina?" he said, "yes, my mother and father.' >> the man's father was 50-year-old ellis sheppard, who lived just 15 miles from shari smith's home. telephone records indicated that some of the calls made to the smith family after shari's abduction were made from the sheppards' home. not surprisingly, police wanted to hear what mr. sheppard had to say. if you're taking multiple medications, does your mouth often feel dry? a dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications. but it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. that's why there's biotene, available as an oral rinse, toothpaste, spray or gel.

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50-year-old ellis sheppard was an electrician. and telephone records show some of the calls made after shari's abduction were made from his phone. >> i wasn't worried, but it was a little bit of a shock they wanted to talk to me. >> sheppard had no idea why his son's telephone number was found on shari smith's last will and testament. he said he and his wife were on vacation at the time of shari smith's abduction, an alibi that checked out.

then police played a recording of the killer's voice. >> i said dirty son of a [ bleep ]. because i knew it was him. and they said what? and i said it's larry gene bell. >> larry gene bell worked for ellis doing electrical wiring. he was housesitting for the sheppards the six weeks he had been away on vacation. >> i had left bell a lot of phone numbers he may need to call in my absence while we are on our trip. >> those pages were turned over to investigators. a transparency of the sheppards' original note was superimposed over shari's last will and testament. the sheppards' note matched the indentions on shari's letter, proving that shari used a piece of paper directly underneath. the sheppards also said that when bell picked them up at the airport, all he wanted to talk about was the kidnapping and murder of the smith girl.

bell had lost weight, was unshaven and seemed highly agitated. this is the police video taken inside the sheppards' home. investigators found six blonde hairs in the bathroom that were microscopically similar to shari's hair. the commemorative duck stamp used to mail her last will and testament matched a sheet of stamps in ellis sheppard's desk drawer. bell was arrested the following morning. >> he just seemed to be shocked that law enforcement now had centered in on him. >> as the fbi had predicted, bell had been involved in various sexual incidents since childhood. >> he had been in trouble for making obscene telephone calls, and at one point even attempting to kidnap a young coed from the university of south carolina.

>> when questioned, bell denied any involvement in the murders of shari smith and debra helmick. >> the only thng he wanted to say over and over was this larry gene bell didn't do it. it was the bad larry gene bell. >> larry gene bell stood trial for the murder of shari smith in january 1986. >> in my closing argument, i told the jury, shari smith had the fortitude and courage to write out her last will and testament. and i put the pen that we took from the sheppards' house in front of the jury. i said, now each one of you, i want you to have the courage to sign your name on a death penalty verdict. it was electrifying. >> the jury needed only 47 minutes to return the verdict of guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder. larry gene bell was sentenced to death by electrocution. >> that was the only punishment for him, and probably -- this is

horrible to say -- too good of a punishment for him. >> he was tried separately for the kidnapping and murder of debra helmick. that jury returned the same verdict. ten years after his trial, larry gene bell became the last man to die in south carolina's electric chair. >> without that letter and without the ability to bring up things on that page that you couldn't see with the naked eye, it would have been even longer before we'd have gotten larry gene bell. >> bob smith remains a chaplain for the sheriff's department. his wife, hilda, recently authored a book "the rose of shari" to honor their daughter's memory. both are convinced, as shari predicted in her last will and testament, some good has come out of their monumental loss.

>> that letter has been more closure to me than any kind of closure that the courts could do for me. just the fact she knew where she was going and she had that kind of faith. >> when firefighters found an entire family dead inside their home, it looked like a murder-suicide. but there were several inconsistent clues in the murder. could the ballistics and tape unravel the mystery? just before daybreak on august 29th, 1994, firefighters in virginia were called to