te ♪ the sheriff's office received a call of a body that had been found in rural carver county. the murder of earl olander was a brutal, horrific crime. >> earl olander was a thriving, independent, 90-year-old farmer. >> earl spent his entire life reaping corn. clearly they were looking for something. >> earl was in the living room, his hands were tied behind his back with duct tape. the house was in extreme disarray. >> they left him there to die. >> we had close to 90 pieces of evidence.

there was a freshly baked blueberry pie on the counter. that sticks with you. >> we assumed that it was somebody from the area or someone that earl knew that had killed him. >> earl's closest friends were put under the microscope. it's upsetting to you obviously. >> for someone to say that my husband is the murderer. i mean, come on. >> i said, do you think we're ever going to get this figured out? and he said, yes, they always leave something behind. >> you felt like you needed a miracle -- >> we needed a miracle. >> -- to solve this case. >> i absolutely believe in divine intervention. >> it all happened the way that it should have, and it all happened to identify earl's killers. >> i've had a 35-year career telling stories. and that's a lot of stories,

with a lot of heartache, a lot of triumph, things that make you smile, and things that make you cry. when i first heard about what happened on this modest farm here in rural minnesota, i just had to come here and see it for myself. what i've discovered is a remarkable story of terror, tragedy and transcendence. >> carver county has a population of about 100,000 people in it. >> it's southwest of minneapolis, about 30 miles. it's a swedish community, started out as. >> we're in the minnesota river valley, so it's very beautiful, quite hilly. >> there's soybeans. there's corn crops. it's -- it's god's country is what it is. >> it's quiet out where we are. so when -- when you hear police cars coming with sirens going, you know something's wrong.

>> there are cases that you would remember over 32 years, and this is certainly one of those. the sheriff's office received a call on april 11, 2015, about 7:00 at night, of a body that had been found in rural carver county and that it appeared to be a homicide. i went down there as soon as i had found out about what had happened. >> the body had been found inside a home on the farm of earl olander. i've spent years covering crime in the minneapolis st. paul area. this is nowhere where you would ever expect a murder. >> as we're looking at earl's house, in the middle is a large picture window. that's the living room. and the living room is where we found earl, laying on the floor, on his stomach. >> i was coming in on the road and there were flashing lights everywhere like i had never seen before. >> his hands were bound with duct tape. his feet had been bound with

duct tape as well, but he had kind of worked that loose a little bit. there was a circular pattern of blood around earl that was on the carpeting. it appeared that earl had been alive for a while and had been trying to get up. >> earl olander was born on this property in 1925. he spent his entire life here, planting and growing, mainly soybean and corn. >> earl olander was a thriving, independent 90-year-old farmer, and he was beloved by the people that knew him, his community. he was a bachelor and lived on that farm for, i think, almost his entire life and still lived alone, in that home, was self-sufficient. in the kitchen there was a freshly baked blueberry pie on the counter, and that sticks with you.

he was going to eat this pie, and he'll never do that. >> your heart goes out to earl and what he must have been thinking and how he must have suffered. >> i distinctly remember one of the police deputies coming out of earl's house with his hand on his gun belt and he looked very seriously at the other deputies that were there and said, we need to clear these buildings. >> the first thing we had to do was make sure there wasn't anybody still here or anybody else that was hurt. you can see all of these outbuildings, barns, and other buildings that were here. we had to clear all of those to go through to make sure we didn't have anybody else. we didn't really know what we had or how big our crime scene may have been. so we -- we walked along the ditches and the farm fields looking for anything that may have been related. we found some gatorade bottles. we found a pipe. we found a bloody kleenex outside along here that we collected, never knowing what

may be important or where it might lead us. we did have a pair of gloves that were found at the end of the driveway, black rubber gloves that we assumed were involved in the case. >> with the immense disarray inside the house, they'd have their work cut out for them. >> as the state crime lab, we respond to homicides, death investigations, abductions, typically the higher-level types of scenes. it was a very sad case, obviously, as an elderly man was -- was killed in his home. from the forensics perspective, we'll send out a team of three individuals from the lab and then one of our agents to assist with photography to evaluate the crime scene and collect evidence and then bring that back to the laboratory for testing. the house had been ransacked. drawers had been taken out of the cabinets. >> we're looking for anything that is foreign to the scene that maybe was brought in and left or we're looking for things that maybe the suspect would have touched.

>> there were about 90 items that were collected from the crime scene by the crime scene team. >> there were a lot of sources where we thought they may have opened a drawer, opened a cabinet. >> we actually unwrapped the duct tape trying to find fingerprints that might have been within the duct tape. we did see some footprints in the kitchen. one was in a drawer and then one was on a chair that was in the kitchen that looked like somebody had stood up on the chair looking for something in cupboards or on top of the refrigerator. there was one that we found on a step leading up into the kitchen from the sunroom. >> with so many areas of the house ransacked, both investigators and locals were hopeful that the killers left behind dna or fingerprints. >> finding out the truth about what happened to earl olander was important to me because this murder happened right in my own community. this is a very tight-knit place where everybody knows everybody. his case quickly made headlines

in the local news. >> this is the original olander homestead and it's where earl was born 90 years ago and sadly, just a few yards from here he died a violent death. >> i have seen that level of ransacking rarely. i've seen it a couple of times, but it doesn't happen that often. most of the time people want to get in and get out real fast. it was obvious that the individuals involved were looking for something. they were trying to find something. >> figuring out what that something was would become an uphill battle. >> there's nobody alive who can tell us what was in the house and so we don't know what to be looking for. >> the main road getting to his house was closed, so somebody had to have known how to get around that. >> there was a detour that was coming out of carver on county road 40 going south at bevens creek bridge. they were doing reconstruction out of that. so the only way to get to this area was coming up from the south out of belle plaine.

you really had to know this area in order to find this place back at the time of the murder. we made detective chris wagner lead detective for this. >> for chris, this crime was also personal. >> earl had lived about a mile away from my house at the time. >> wow. so this hit very close to home literally. >> very close. >> what are some of the things you learned about earl olander? >> everyone said he -- you know, he was just a sweet man. how could anybody hurt him? he was just very kind. >> did he have any enemies? >> not that we're aware of. everyone, like i said, loved earl. he would go to church every sunday at the east union lutheran church where we are here. and very simple. never had a cell phone. never had a credit card. he would pay with cash or a check. you could tell that the suspects had spent a significant amount of time in the house going through all the drawers and cupboards.

>> clearly they were looking for something. >> yes. money has always been in a lot of crimes that you're looking into. >> how much money did he have? >> well, he didn't advertise, but he was worth several million dollars. >> finding out earl had millions, that was a bombshell. >> who would have known that, and is that what put him in danger? despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day, that's effective without topical steroids. many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin while some saw up to 100% clear skin. plus, they felt fast itch relief some as early as 2 days. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers including

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♪ ♪ >> finding out earl, this modest farmer, was a millionaire was a big shock for a lot of people. >> we found that out pretty quick. we went to his bank, i think, the next day. >> i think that is always a motive. earl's money came from all his previous family members who had passed away and had, in turn, left him money. >> earl was also a profitable farmer in his own right. he even continued to sell hay at the age of 90. here you have a farmer who spent his entire life reaping corn and soybeans on his farm and

clearly, reaping the benefits of all of all that. >> yeah, if you would see his house, he lived very, very simply. i mean, you would never have known. he didn't advertise it. >> he wasn't a big spender. he had no credit cards and no electronic bankcards. >> no, no cell phone. when his brother-in-law was trying to get a hold of him, it was on a landline. we would later learn that that phone line had been cut during the home invasion so that he was unable to contact anybody. >> did earl keep any money inside the house? >> when we searched his home, we found about $900 in the basement in a little coffee can that he had hidden under the stairs. >> $280 dollars was also found on a dresser, perhaps missed by earl's killers. >> but there was not a lot of money around in the house. >> the rest was in the bank. >> correct. >> there's this idea in parts of the midwest that farmers don't

always trust banks and instead they keep their money hidden in their homes, under mattresses, but this can make them vulnerable. nearby farmers had been murdered for money and the fear of that happening again ran deep. >> last night a neighbor discovered the bodies of harry and clarence wondra, two elderly bachelors who had farmed here together for more than 30 years. >> in 1985 in the county just 30 miles south of earl, the wondra brothers were murdered on their farm after a rumor circulated that they kept their money in cans used by dairy farmers to store cream and milk. >> they believe robbery was the motive as evidenced by the house which had been ransacked. the sheriff says it appears the two were beaten because they wouldn't tell the killer or killers where their money was hidden. it's been reported that large sums of money were stashed away. >> earl followed this case and it scared him even after the man responsible for the wondra murders, virgil lee hutchinson, was convicted of both clarence and harry wondra's murders.

>> we told someone he was scared. >> it was another home invasion. he had said, i hope nobody does that to me. we had over 90 pieces of evidence. the first set of evidence that we sent in were the clippings underneath earl's fingernails, the duct tape that was surrounding his wrists. we found a roll of duct tape in one of the bedrooms and then those black gloves. >> while they waited for the results of that first batch of evidence, chris wagner and her team canvassed the neighborhood to learn everything they could about who earl was and who would want to kill him. >> my grandmother and earl's dad, art, were brother and sister and they were born on this farm. he's half norwegian, i think, and half swedish. as a kid, we'd come here and visit earl. my memories of earl are kind of when he was working hard like he always did. just loved farming. he wanted to be like his dad and like everybody else around here.

>> many of the folks who live out here have lived there their whole lives -- 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years. like earl. >> earl even made the national news once in a story about the secret for living a long and healthy life. >> no matter how cold 73-year-old earl olander is up with the cows. >> never been to a doctor, never been to a hospital. >> never been to a doctor? >> well, i had something in my eye once. >> at 90 years old he was still active in farming. he still liked to bale hey and throw bales around. he could probably throw them better than i could. when i found out, my stomach just kind of sunk. >> while earl didn't have many family members in the area, he was close to his neighbors, the boeckers. >> this one's probably christmas with earl. we were the ones that got him on christmas eve. we'd have our perogin and steak

and twice-baked potatoes. it was the same thing every year and we looked forward to him coming over every year. the first year without him was very sad. >> one of my earliest memories is going over to his house. we would go into his barns and play on his hay bales and chase his stray cats. the first big event that earl really missed was my wedding and he was definitely on my mind that day. he really was a role model. he's probably the most patient and kind person i knew. >> faith was the utmost important thing to him.

his life and legacy still impact this congregation today. earl invested his funds, financially speaking, here in the church. i think this was his beloved. >> earl's body was found on april 11th, but it was critical to determine when he was murdered to help figure out who might have killed him. >> there's a lot of first things you want to do in a case like this. one of them is grabbing security footage. we came across san francisco township hall. we found a camera up on the wall. this is about a mile, maybe a mile or so south of earl's house. there was an sd card that was inside of there. maybe we get a face, maybe we get a license plate,

description of a car, something to help us with this case. because of the detour, this is right along the route that we, supposed that the people had taken to get to earl's so this was key footage and there isn't a lot of traffic along here. >> how did you narrow down the timeframe? >> on friday and saturday he was a stand-in in the card games that he'd play with his cousins and he was supposed to attend and never made it. >> they always play 500 and they'd play so many rounds. earl wasn't there, so they finally tried to call him and they couldn't get a hold of him. >> the mystery grew when investigators also learned that earl missed, what i learned firsthand was often the highlight of his week, the hay auction in nearby belle plaine. [auctioneer calling] >> nice deal. >> we have a hay auction and a livestock auction every thursday. been doing it since 1957 when our family bought this place. [auctioneer calling] >> for earl, this was more than

an auction. >> exactly. it was his day out. he'd come here on every thursday. he had a spot on the seats where he sat. >> he didn't have a mean bone in his body at all. just miss him. i can still see him. earl always had kind of a darker green cap. that's the way he was every thursday. it just hurts the way it went down. >> investigators were narrowing down the time frame. they figured earl had to have been attacked before thursday, point them toward suspects. even with all they'd collected, clues were scarce. >> i was excited thinking we would get evidence back on the gloves, under his fingernails. nothing. >> we didn't find one positive connection to dna or fingerprints of forensic value. >> what was that like? >> very, very frustrating.

>> investigators had high hopes that the security camera that the security camera footage taken from the town hall near earl's home would reveal an image of earl's killers. >> and what we found was the last recording was from 2012. it was back to ground zero. >> in the end, investigators had just one lead from the crime scene. >> the shoe prints from the scene became important because we didn't get anything else. >> the shoe prints were the only evidence that we had tying the suspects to the scene. >> those were the shoeprints of the killers.

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murder had only one piece of evidence to work with -- shoe prints. >> we knew that we had two shoe prints that were found within the house. the third shoe print was outside of the house in the breezeway and it was at a different angle coming in from the front of the home. >> police were not sure if that third print was connected to the case. >> so we knew that we had at least two suspects. >> what would be critical is to learn what brand of shoes left those prints. >> the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension gave us a rare look at the process they used to determine that. >> so, these are photographs of the impressions that were at the scene. so, this one here is from the stoop. this one is from the drawer and then this one is from the chair. the impression in the drawer and the impression on the chair were both dusty impressions. i've set up a dusty impression on a piece of glass. so, what we do is we look at it

by lighting it from the side and then the impression can become much more visible. i'm going to take this gel-lifter and i'm going to actually spread it across the impression and pull the impression off onto the adhesive. i'm just going to roll this across to get out any bubbles. then i'm going to slowly lift it off. so you can see that we have our impression now. i took a scan of this. that allows me to then go in to create additional contrast and brightness and bring out that impression even more. i search it in this database called solemate. it's got 42,970 reference shoe prints that i can search against this one. i add the different features. this one here is very similar to the impression that we're

seeing. >> and low and behold, investigators were able to narrow down those three shoe prints. >> the impression in the drawer, that one was the crocs. the impressions from the chair were adidas. the shoe print impression from the step was the avia shoe. >> the importance of shoe prints in this case cannot be overstated. it's all they had to link suspects to the scene of the crime. and based on where they were found at the house it meant at least two or three killers. >> it was extremely significant. >> finding the owners of those shoes would lead you to the killer. >> correct. >> detectives started taking note of shoes worn by many of the people they talked to, even earl's close friends. i sat down with earl's

neighbors the boeckers who remember that distinctly because it made them feel uncomfortable. >> they had mentioned they wanted to see shoes. >> i think they took a picture of the bottom of my shoe. they had gone through my other shoes. >> did it make you feel like a suspect? >> yes and no. >> but we knew we didn't do it. >> the incident with earl left both maria and bill boecker unnerved, especially after what they tell authorities happened to them just months prior. >> i remember that night when that happened. i just had all the flashbacks of stuff that happened to us. we had had a burglary incident. >> the boeckers had reported in january $30,000 stolen out of their closet. they had a little safe they kept money in. >> $30,000?

>> $30,000 in cash. bill boecker, he was a painter in the area and had stored some of this money in his house prior to leaving on vacation. when he and his wife maria returned, they found that the money was gone. >> because the boecker's burglary was only a couple months before earl's murder, neighbors started thinking criminals may have been targeting not just him but the whole neighborhood. >> when earl was killed just three months after the theft, alarm bells went off. >> we called to say, hey, we had just had a burglary incident that we had reported and these things might be tied together. >> the boeckers told police that among the only people who had access to their home during the time that the money went missing were their own kids. >> we asked if the kids had any parties. >> the kids told investigators and their parents that they didn't know anything about the stolen money. >> but there was someone else who may have had access to their

home. the boeckers told investigators about a man who had worked with bill boecker, a painter named reinol vergara. >> from the day i met him, he said, everybody calls me henry. henry was great to work with. super nice guy. very pleasant. henry worked at our house a lot, especially when we were remodeling. >> you mentioned the theft at your place. did you think henry might have done it? >> no, but you never know. >> henry vergara also denied involvement of the missing thirty grand and he said he would never steal from his boss. >> we had spoken with reinol. we couldn't prove that reinol had stolen the $30,000 dollars. >> was the case ever solved? >> no. >> i think everybody in the area was wondering if these two cases could have been tied together, and, if they were tied together, what did that, then, mean? were they going to hit other houses? what was going to happen?

there was a lot of angst and fear. >> we didn't have any details. we didn't know at that point if he -- if this person was still in the neighborhood. >> next thing you know, locking the door. >> i took a gun and just sat with a gun. >> and then there was one in the nightstand. >> then, the woman who lived right next to earl came forward with a shocking report to the carver county sheriff's office. she wondered if she had actually seen one of earl's killers. >> about a month before earl's murder at 10:00 at night i witnessed somebody walking on the property line. i would wonder if that was the person who murdered earl. ♪ ♪ ♪ do you remember ♪ ♪ the 25th night of december? ♪ ♪ the true love we share today ♪

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as carver county investigators keep chasing leads, another one of earl's neighbors reports something strange that she saw a month

before his murder and that brings them back to the farm to investigate. >> in 2015 we lived right next door to earl. we're the closest house to his property. as i was out on my deck, it was about 10:00, 10:30 at night. i had turned the light on to come out and that's when i saw somebody. there's nothing behind here. i mean, it's just acres and acres of land. i had witnessed somebody walking with a flashlight on his head and i could see the light. the person wasn't frightened. the person didn't change their behavior when they could obviously see that somebody was watching them. it was just really very scary. they purposefully had walked out or gone around possibly earl's property. i didn't know if somebody had been stalking. so i just wanted them to have that information that how long somebody was plotting this or if

that had anything to do with it. >> we went out to the scene and couldn't find any tracks. and it had been weeks and it had rained. so a lot of that, if there was any shoe prints, were probably destroyed by the weather at that time. >> we worried a lot was earl picked? so we were always on guard that somebody had been stalking both houses possibly and was just giving a little time before they struck and came back to our house. it was very unnerving. i ended up moving shortly after. >> what's also interesting about kim's tip is that during roughly the same timeframe a second neighbor on an adjacent street also reported hearing what she thought was someone entering her home late at night. she said whoever it was left before she came down 15 minutes later to check it out. at first she thought it was her husband, but it wasn't. >> folks must have been scared. >> a little bit scared. yeah, really. >> a killer among you. >> among us, right.

yeah, you know, like that. there was a little concern. keep your houses locked. >> we had over 300 leads on this case. so we were going all over the place running all of these down. one of the leads that we had came up at the dog house bar, which is right over there, which is an iconic bar, kind of a cheers kind of place. everybody knows your name there. the tip that came in was that thee was a couple of guys in there that weren't regulars, that were causing some trouble. that raised red flags with them. >> in 2015 i was working at the dog house in carver. it's very hometown, extremely blue collar. typically, i always knew who was coming in on my friday nights. so on april 10th it was just a typical normal friday night. these two gentlemen had walked in that nobody had known. they were extremely loud.

most people don't come in carrying a large amount of money. the one gentleman, he had a wad of hundreds. probably a couple of thousands of dollars. he had no problem continuously pulling it out of his pocket and just flashing it around. >> here's a couple people. got a lot of cash. kind of outsiders and in relatively close proximity time-wise to when earl had been murdered. >> when this happened at the bar, earl's body hadn't even been discovered yet. but when news about the murder broke, what happened at the doghouse really made people think twice about the strangers. >> some of the customers within the bar felt that they possibly could have something to do with the murder. the whole room felt uncomfortable. they just kind of gave you that creepy, eerie vibe. they were arguing. one was hitting his fist on the

bar. then they started to throw the popcorn. they started to get a little more, as i like to call, energized, emotional, angry. my normal customers were like, sarah, we just, we don't feel right. my customers had said, can you do anything about this? and i was like well, i'll kick them out. we didn't know them, but their behavior the second they opened the door, it was just not a normal thing to witness. >> nobody knew who these guys were and they were just spending money and buying rounds of drinks and so. >> loud. >> loud. and so we had looked into them. >> and turns out they were locals, although not regulars, right? >> correct. >> and that turned out to be nothing. >> correct. >> while small-town distrust of strangers failed to generate a new lead, two new tips sent to investigators would be enough to trigger an undercover operation. >> what a lot of people did not

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ten days after earl olander's murder, investigators are frustrated. the few leads they have go nowhere. so they decide to do something bold. they stage an undercover operation on april 20, 2015 at earl olander's funeral. >> what a lot of people did not know was that we had somebody undercover at his funeral that had a camera and mic on him, just to get people's reactions and see who was here and try to get a better handle on what was going on with this case. we had received a tip.

i think it was about the day before the funeral, that we should take a look at bill boecker. >> this is a big twist. remember, by most accounts, bill boecker and his wife maria were like family to earl. >> they would often invite earl over for christmas, for thanksgiving and other holidays. there were some concerns about -- that the boeckers may have financial gain. >> according to investigators, the tip they received was that bill boecker, on more than one occasion, had approached earl about selling them his farm or at least part of his property. >> they had wanted to buy earl's land. so there was some suspicion if the boeckers had any connection with his death during our investigation. >> we just mentioned to earl selling land. >> if you ever want to sell, we would buy. >> did you want to build a dream home on his land? >> there was no dream home. we said, earl, sell us a chunk of land next to you and we'll

live right next to you. we'll build right next to you. we'd take care of him. he was like a grandfather. earl always said, nope. when i'm dead, everything will get taken care of. and that's -- that was always his answer to us. >> now earl was dead, murdered and investigators needed to know why. so what did you do to investigate that? >> well, we spoke with the boeckers and they obviously denied having any connection to it. >> they have the story wrong. they don't know us. they don't know how much we loved him. my faith is the only thing that got me through it. >> they wanted a dna swab. >> so you gave your dna. >> yes. >> everyone was a suspect? >> yup, including us. >> apparently. >> at about the same time investigators were prepping for the undercover operation, they get another tip to look into someone else -- the painter that bill employed, henry vergara.

it turns out henry painted earl's house less than a year before the murder. >> one of the leads that we had received was out of concern on a paint crew that had painted earl's home the year before in 2014. earl had hired his neighbor, bill boecker and bill boecker's employee, reinol vergara whom they called henry saying that he thought that reinol was suspicious. >> the guy that we knew, that we had trusted in our house, he was my most requested employee. he was asked by name. i want henry. i want henry. everybody trusted him. >> authorities collected dna samples from both the boeckers and henry. but remember, no dna was ever recovered from the crime scene. so there was nothing to compare them to. you did something at earl's funeral. >> part of any homicide is that we send detectives to the funeral to see if there's anything that looks suspicious. and so, we did go and send some detectives to the funeral and just kind of peek around and see

if there was anything unusual. >> wearing a hidden camera. >> correct. well, you never know who you're going to talk to. >> the funeral was well attended. the church was packed and there were a lot of people coming and going. we had put our officer at the entrance to the church so we could catch everybody that came in. he did see bill boecker and he did start up a conversation with him regarding earl. >> and they asked bill boecker about henry? >> correct. >> what did he say? >> that he had thought that he was a good person. he had worked for him for 10 to 12 years, but he was also suspicious of the money that had been missing and had thought that maybe he had something to do with it. >> the undercover officer got a chance to talk to bill boecker and other people at the funeral, but it failed to yield solid leads. but then on april 29th, about two weeks after earl's was

killed another double murder happens on a minnesota farm. >> lyon county it's southwestern minnesota. it's about two and a half hours away from here. son was driving by, saw his parents' house on fire. >> the farmhouse was owned by jim and cathy hively. both had been shot dead. their house had been set on fire to cover up the evidence and locals were shocked. >> and two hours away. >> yes. >> we have contacted the lyon county sheriff's office and the detectives in that area and we're trying to get that information and compare it to our own case. >> both homes were burglarized and rural farm family. >> investigators charged 20-year-old derek hexum, 18-year-old theodore como and 21-year-old kyle wesselink with the deaths. >> the three men were later convicted of the hively murders, but one more similarity in the two cases is striking. at a location investigated in connection with the crime one of the suspects left a shoe print

behind, an adidas shoe print. >> whoever killed earl olander also wore adidas shoes. did you think that whoever killed the hivelys could have also killed earl? >> we were looking into that prior to receiving our tip on may 9th. that would open this case wide open. >> and call it chance, luck, or a miracle any hively connection is ruled out when a man calls crime stoppers and sends the investigation in a whole new direction. >> i was cleaning a house a few days ago and i ran across this bible. and i saw the guy's name in the bible. >> okay. >> the name is earl o-l-a-n-d-e-r. >> and that discovery it wasn't even the last twist. >> second page for chanhassen rescue, needed for a medical, at

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this was one of the most intense murder cases we've had in decades. they attacked earl, duct taped him, beat him, left him for dead and we don't have anyone in custody. >> it was so senseless. >> i think we had close to 90 pieces of evidence. we didn't find one positive connection to dna or fingerprints. we didn't know who killed earl olander. >> we really needed a good break in this case. the bible gave us the leads that we needed to solve this case and bring earl's death to justice. >> i was cleaning house a few days ago and i ran across this bible.

>> you found a bible with his name in it? >> the bible is just one twist in a case that's far from over. >> mr. olander's community family and friends deserve to know the actual truth, real motive, true story of his death. >> the thrust of the investigation by the private investigator was to see whether you specifically were involved. >> us? >> i think divine intervention is god knows how everything is going to happen and play out. >> i still get chills sitting here. it sent chills down my spine. >> we had a picture of earl in our investigative unit with justice for earl. it was the picture that he had in his church directory. he was wearing a nice red dress shirt and his hands were folded. we would often, you know, look

at him and i need a sign. we need to figure something out. we're not getting anywhere. >> in the end, what is it that fnally cracks the case? >> earl's bible. on may 9, 2015 we got a tip from a party who had been cleaning an apartment in st. paul for $23 and a bottle of vodka. this caller said that he had found this bible and he described this bible as very ornate and old and in some sort of european language. >> st. paul, minnesota, is a long way from where earl lived, some 50 miles. so this is a big surprise. >> i saw the guy's name in the bible. his name is earl o-l-a-n-d-e-r. >> okay. >> it was a norwegian bible at the place that i was cleaning up. so yesterday i open the bible up and there was two one thousand dollar bonds in there with his name and address and everything on there and come to find out

that he was dead. i looked it up this morning and they said murdered. >> he googled the name earl olander and saw that there was a reward and earl had been the victim of a homicide in carver county. initially when we had put out a reward for information, we had started at $1,000. at a certain point when we were not getting anywhere, we increased it to $7,500 and the tips started to come in a lot more. >> listening to the recording, you can tell that even the dispatcher knew this particular tip was a big deal. she calls her supervisor. >> i have a guy calling and saying he was cleaning a house in st. paul and he found a bible with, like, bonds in them with the name of the guy that died. >> seriously? >> yeah. so i feel like that's kind of a big thing. >> yeah, it is kind of a big thing. >> it was a sunday. so i was at home when i received

a phone call that they had a bible and had a very important big break in this case. we've got a break. we've got something that we can go on. we've got a direction that we can go with this case and hopefully bring the murderers of earl to justice. >> is this a case of divine intervention? >> i believe it is. we didn't have anything until this bible. i think the significance of it is earl's history and his faith was so important to him that this bible is really what brought us to solving his murder. >> i believe earl got his norwegian bible as either a confirmation gift or was handed down through generations. earl was norwegian. his mother was norwegian. we didn't hold that against him, us swedes. faith was very important to him. >> it was from the late 1800s, early 1900s. the outside was leather, embossed. the inside was very beautiful paintings and lithographs and so on.

it's a beautiful, beautiful family bible. >> i think divine intervention is god knows how everything is going to happen and play out. >> so the first question is why was earl's bible in this random apartment to begin with? >> when we get the tip, my partners meet with barry kyles. he's the one who was cleaning the apartment. we found out the people that had lived in the apartment was edson benitez dominguez and his wife. she said her husband had brought it home one evening and said he got it from a friend. the bible made her uncomfortable and it kind of creeped her out. >> she thought it was creepy. >> it was creepy. it just -- it made her uneasy and so she left the bible behind in the apartment. >> in her interview with police she said edson, her husband, did not even tell her that the bible was stolen and she didn't want to open it because it made her think of spirits. >> edson benitez is not a name

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everybody in the sheriff's office wanted to solve this. earl was like everybody's grandfather. he was just a nice, older guy. >> i would drive by earl's farm on my way to the office every morning. it just felt very nerve wracking. >> there is a misperception that the public has from watching these television shows that a crime is solved within hours or within days. >> from a forensics standpoint, the shoe prints were the only evidence that we had. >> someone had pulled out all the drawers and just ransacked the kitchen looking for money or valuables and it was rather dusty in the kitchen. so they got an excellent print inside this drawer, which you can read, c-r-o-c-s, crocs. so we knew somebody was wearing crocs. >> now, investigators needed to know what kind of shoes does edson benitez wear? >> edson benitez worked at

chilis. he was a cook. >> the police, they talked to him and said, hey, we want to talk to you about this book that we found at your apartment. >> and as they approach, they notice that edson was wearing croc style shoes. >> edson benitez was wearing the same type of shoes as one of earl's killers. >> that certainly did stand out to our detectives. after our detectives saw that, we needed to have some more conversation with him. >> police have no idea who edson benitez is. they don't know what the connection to earl could be. all they know is that he has a murdered man's stolen bible. >> when they ask him about the bible, what does edson benitez say? >> he acknowledges that he had possession of the bible, but he said that he had gotten it from his friend hugo. >> when authorities go to talk

to benitez at chilis, they're recording everything and we got a hold of that recording. >> he said his friend hugo gave him the book and a bag with some stuff in it. >> where does hugo live? >> in richfield. >> in richfield? >> yeah. >> richfield is a first-ring suburb of minneapolis. this is nowhere near where earl was killed in carver county. >> you have a phone number for him? >> no, no. he went to mexico. that was why he threw everything away. >> okay. >> he threw everything away and went back to mexico, mexico? >> yeah, because he was going to back to mexico. >> when did he go back to mexico? >> like, last week. >> okay. >> police press edson benitez for details on hugo for several minutes trying to get as much information as they can to track him down. >> did he go back by himself? >> no. he didn't tell me. he -- >> what's that?

>> he -- he -- i don't know if he -- he went by himself or he was gonna ride with his friends or not. >> okay. >> as they talk, investigators start to learn a little bit more about benitez himself. >> what can you tell me about him, benitez? >> edson came from mexico. he attended high school for a couple of years. he had been married for about six months. their marriage was troubled. edson would spend a lot of time out at night and wouldn't come home till early in the morning. he was described as a pack rat. he was always bringing things home that he had found or that he had gotten from a friend. >> or so he said. >> or so he said. >> investigators then start questioning benitez, probing about where he goes. >> we're from carver county. >> okay. >> do you know where that is? >> no. >> okay. do you ever go out the, outside the metro, minneapolis st.paul or anything? >> no, only here in like bloomington or minneapolis. i don't. i don't go out. i don't know -- i don't know the

cities are -- the cities good. >> they're trying to see if edson will admit to being in carver county where earl was murdered, but he doesn't. then, they switch to trying to figure out what shifts he works. >> do you work set days, or -- >> no. i got my set days. like, i work, like, every day, like, my day off is only wednesday. >> your only day off is wednesday? >> wednesday and tuesday. >> authorities believe earl was killed on wednesday, april 8th. so having wednesdays off meant he likely wasn't working the night of the murder. >> i need to detain you, bud. so i need you to turn around. >> okay. why do you need to detain me? >> well, the book is stolen. >> uh-huh. >> and i think you know a little bit more about that than uh than you're probably telling me, and i'd like to give you an opportunity to be honest with me. >> once he's in handcuffs and being brought in for questioning, his story of getting the bible from an alleged friend named hugo, changes. >> benitez admitted that, that was a lie. he made it up. >> we want to talk to you about

that book and how you came into possession of that book. that's why we're here talking to you today. do you understand that? >> yeah. >> okay. >> here, here's the thing, edson, okay? i don't -- i don't think you got it from a friend. >> nah, i didn't get it from a friend. >> what? >> i'm gonna tell you the truth. >> no one could anticipate what truths will emerge once edson benitez is inside the interrogation room and who he'll name as earl olander's killer. >> he threatened to kill him? >> you're going to die. you tell me where the money is. >> yeah, or you're gonna die. we're on it with jardiance. join the growing number of people who are on it with the once-daily pill, jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c, it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, (that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function), and genital yeast or urinary tract infections.

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we ended up detaining edson and wanted to have a conversation with him. >> go ahead and have a seat on the sofa. that'd be great. >> bring us inside his interrogation.

>> it was myself and my partner who had interviewed him, and edson was very personable. we're looking for your help in trying to figure out exactly what happened that night and just for you to help piece together everything that had happened. >> it's in this interrogation that they learn more about benitez's connection to earl olander. >> he had said that he had helped a friend. he was contacted by a guy named reinol vergara. i had recognized that name as being henry, the painter who had painted earl's house the year before. >> and worked with boecker. >> and worked with bill boecker, and was also a suspect of that theft of $30,000. >> so remember, in january of 2015, just a few months before earl's murder, the boeckers discovered $30,000 was missing from a lock box in their closet. vergara was one of the few people who had access to the house.

they lived just down the street from earl. they always wondered if there was a connection between their theft and earl's murder. >> is henry the one who organized this? >> yeah, he said he needs money. he said, i need your help. hey, you need help with what? i said, i need money. >> according to benitez, he was contacted the day before on april 7th by vergara who had said that he wanted to do a job and that he had known of an old man who had lots of money that lived near his boss out in the country. >> what did he say about this old man? how did he know him? >> ah, he said he -- he was painting something. because he was working for a painting company, he knew him because the owner of the painting -- he knows really well too, the old man. >> he didn't want to use his car because vergara had said that people in the community recognized vergara's car. so he had asked benitez if he had a car that he could use. >> we meet at halfway and like

at a store by his house. >> they had talked on the day of the 8th, on april 8th. they met at about 9:00 in the evening and they had driven out to earl's place. benitez says that they saw that there was a light on in the living room. >> would you be agreeable to kinda sketching it out on paper here so that i -- >> how to get there? >> yeah. >> edson drew them a sketch, which was a match to the layout of earl's property. then, he described approaching he house. >> and they drove the car, which was benitez's car, back behind one of the barns at the property. according to benitez, he sat in the car while vergara had collected a black duffle bag. >> that had the duct tape, maybe the gloves, but it had the gun in it. >> that gun is what would allegedly be used to beat earl. >> what was reinol's plan? >> i'm going to go inside, and

then i come back, and i'm going to get you. i was like, okay. >> so, i was in the car. he went over there for like 20 minutes, and then he came back and like, c'mon, let's go. come here. >> vergara returns to the car and says, hey, i need your help. i can't find the money. >> did you go in the front door or the back door? >> the back door. when i went in, i saw the man on the floor. he moved only like this. his hands tied like take 'em off. he was like uh, uh, made a noise like take 'em off, but -- >> was he saying anything, or was he just kind of grunting? >> kind of grunting. >> could you see his face? >> no, because he was covered with a blanket. >> benitez said that vergara was the one who had swung the gun, taking those blows or those heavy motions over his head and basically pummeled earl down to the ground. >> so brutal. >> very brutal. he's laying there with his hands tied. what did reinol say to you?

>> let's go find the money. >> at one point earl was trying to break free. >> he said he's going to die. >> he -- he said to the old man, you're going to die? >> yeah, you're going to die. >> we threatened to kill him? >> yeah. >> you're going to die. you tell me where the money is. >> yeah, or you're going to die. you're going to die. >> the saddest part about this story, is that earl suffered, earl endured this and would be left for dead. >> did you see the old man moving at all? >> yeah. he was moving some. he was breathing. >> he was breathing and moving around? >> uh-huh. >> okay. they left him and they cut his phone line. so he wasn't able to call anyone for help and they left him there to die. >> if you believe benitez's version of events, the case seems open and shut, but when it's henry vergara's turn to talk to police, he tells a very different story. he says he wasn't even there. >> you and edson went to earl's. >> no. >> yep, you know it. >> maybe edson. me, nah.

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benitez had talked about vergara and vergara's name certainly did pique our interest because we knew him. everybody called him henry. he had painted at earl's house. >> he had painted for the boeckers for approximately 10 to -12 years. vergara was also from the same town in mexico as benitez. >> at the time earl was killed, vergara had been arrested for traffic offenses. nothing like murder. benitez's criminal record was much the same, though he had been charged with a burglary

about a year before earl's murder, but those charges were dismissed. murder charges were a whole new ball game. >> he said he was involved but edson wouldn't say that he hit earl with the gun. he placed it all on vergara. >> we did a search warrant and located vergara. initially vergara denied having any involvement. >> what we need to do is i need you to tell me what happened. >> what happened for what? >> when earl got hurt. >> i don't know. he was -- >> but we do know, that's the thing. >> for an hour they questioned vergara and for an hour he said he wasn't even there. ultimately, it only ends one way. >> you're under arrest for murder. >> okay. >> there's one other key detail investigators notice before he's taken away. >> can i see the bottom of your shoe, buddy? i think those are the shoes you

wore the night earl got hurt. >> what kind of shoes was he wearing? >> adidas. his shoe actually that he was wearing during his arrest matched the shoe print impression that was taken off the kitchen chair. >> between edson's crocs and vergara's adidas, two of the three mysterious shoe prints found at earl's house were now accounted for. >> back at the carver county jail vergara starts by denying even being at earl's house and then he changes his tune and points the finger at benitez. vergara blamed benitez for a lot of what had happened. >> there is no doubt that you were in earl's house that night. >> edson said you did everything. >> he said he waited in the car while you did it. >> no. >> and your footprints are in the house. so it's looking like edson's telling the truth. >> he never throughout his interview admitted to having any involvement in earl's assault.

>> there was an awful lot of fnger pointing that was going on in this case. >> and then there was still the open question of that third shoe print. the avia found on the step of where the killer or killers came in. whose was it? weren't there three shoe prints at the house? >> there were. this avia, that we had not rint- identified as being anybody's that was found in the porch area. >> my partner had mentioned to vergara, could there have been somebody else? it wasn't you. and vergara took that and ran. vergara said it was benitez and another guy that had gone into the house. >> who else was with you? >> just him and other guy. >> another guy? >> yeah. >> who was this third person? >> vergara gave us an identity of a person named martin that

was responsible. is that his first name or last name? >> martín? >> yeah. >> i don't know. maybe it is more for the -- it's a name, nickname. >> as police try to chase down details of this alleged third person, murder charges are filed against the two men who can definitely be placed at the scene -- benitez and vergara. >> both defendants were charged with four counts of murder. i looked at them as being equally culpable. i believe that vergara set this up. he knew earl. he set it in motion. but for vergara, the crime wouldn't have happened. i believe that benitez was the one that went in and hit him over the head, but they both duct taped him. they both ransacked the house. they both covered it up. they're equally culpable of a brutal attack. >> investigators say that reinol vergara of richfield was hired to paint 90-year-old earl olander's house.

unfortunately, the job didn't end there. >> for anybody to go and take advantage of someone after having earned their trust, it's evil. >> one of the items they stole a bible written in a foreign language with two savings bonds inside. that bible is what led police to the pair of suspects. >> it's especially hard for maria and bill boecker to come to terms with the news. remember, vergara wasn't just any employee. he was someone bill worked closely with and that the whole family trusted. >> when you found out that henry vergara is one of those men arrested, did you feel a sense of betrayal? >> at first we didn't believe it. >> then once you find out they got the shoe print and he had the shoes on when they arrested him that were in the house, and now we're like, okay, now we've been lied to. now the betrayal sets in. >> did you think maybe the cops have the wrong guy? >> oh, yeah. >> fom day one. >> it wasn't him.

>> i was totally miffed, not the person we know. wouldn't have done this. maria went down to confront henry at the jail and then she's like, well, are you going? >> i said, why would i go? whatever he tells me, how do i know it's the truth? >> did you know that your visit to see henry vergara was being recorded? >> i didn't. >> prison visits and phone calls are often recorded. in fact, it's fairly customary. >> would you like to listen to the recording? >> you know, part of me does and part of me doesn't. i'm curious to know what i said, but i know it's going to be hard. >> i start out by playing maria a clip in which vergara suggests that there was a third person, a loop that investigators at the time were trying to close. this is the recording of your visit to see vergara. >> there were three of you? >> yes, there's three, not two.

>> who is this third guy? maria went to -- straight to an investigator and said, you're not done. he says there's a third person. >> you need to get him. >> go find him. >> we loved earl. we loved you. >> yeah. >> and -- and to think 99% sure yesterday, i was sure 99% henry would never do this, and today it's 99% sure he did. if i bring a priest to see you for confession, will you confess? >> yeah, maybe. >> no, not maybe. will you confess your part so that you can go to heaven? i'm going to get you priest and i want you to talk to him because more important to me is your soul.

>> maria, what is it like to hear yourself confront him? >> i don't know. it's painful. >> you seem worried about vergara's soul. talk to me about that. >> well, we are faith filled. jesus died on the cross for us to forgive our sins. he wants everybody in heaven with him. he loves henry just as much as he loves me. >> even a killer? >> yeah, even a killer. god loves all his children. >> with charges filed and benitez and vergara heading to court, the investigators continued to build their case.

paying particular attention to benitez's allegations of a third suspect, someone who might have left that unidentified third shoe print. >> it was then that investigators would be faced with a brand new challenge when someone else turns up dead on their watch, and not just anyone. >> my sergeant said, i need your help on a death investigation at paisley park. >> second page for chanhassen rescue, needed for a medical at paisley park, 7801 audubon road. >> i said, that's where prince lives. he looked at me and he said yep. else exciting going on? of course. (engine revs) (beeps) car: watch for traffic. ♪ (hey my man...) up for something new? anytime. (engine revs) hey lexus, read my newest message. car: our spot. sunrise. the all-new lexus rx. looking good... always.

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at a court hearing for edson benitez and reinol vergara, prince's death is about to steal the spotlight. >> i was sitting in the back row. my sergeant came in and asked me to come out. i thought, right now? he said i need your help on a death investigation at paisley park. >> second page for chanhassen rescue, needed for a medical at paisley park, 7801 audubon road. >> i said, that's where prince lives. he looked at me and he said, yep. >> authorities say at 9:43 thursday morning sheriff's deputies responded to the artist's home where they found

57-year-old prince rogers nelson unresponsive. >> they had found prince dead. >> we went from investigating earl's homicide to investigating prince's death. i had to tell earl's family that i wasn't able to stay, and that they would soon learn why. >> we are going to leave no stone unturned with this and make sure that the public knows what happened. >> i remember all the mourners and all the fans coming out in celebration of his life. it would take two years to learn that he'd died after taking vicodin laced with fentanyl. >> you have said that earl's case, and not prince's, was the most impactful of your career. >> it was. i think it was very personal. earl was well loved by everyone. this case was a very hard case to work. we had no evidence and it was all solved by his bible. >> that bible and dedicated detective work. investigators needed to close the loop on whether a third

person was really involved, someone who might have left that third avia shoeprint. they found evidence to place benitez and vergara at the scene but not anyone else. >> we were able to identify that they had sent each other a text message. if those messages were never sent, we wouldn't have been able to get the cell tower pings to get them at earl's home. >> investigators decided that mystery third shoe print likely wasn't from the night of earl's murder. >> we believe that shoe print had been there for some time. >> benitez and vergara ended up accepting a plea deal. >> the offer was plead guilty to second-degree intentional murder and serve 37 and a half years in prison. at the plea hearing benitez and

vergara have to face earl olander's family. >> what happened to my uncle, earl olander, was pure evil. >> reinol vergara sat in his orange jumpsuit, hands shackled, headphones on, listening to his interpreter. >> he had a kind soul and a gentle spirit, a firm handshake with a calloused hand and lived a simple life with grace and was an example to us all. >> when the defendant painted his house, my uncle offered him water and invited him into the house. the defendant even testified my uncle was always kind to him and brought him snacks from the store. >> both men apologized before being led away by deputies. >> i just want to apologize to the family. i'm sorry for doing this. i know it will be very difficult to forgive me. >> earl olander's family would soon have more to ponder than forgiveness because of something edson benitez said at his

sentencing on may 6, 2016. after the allegation of a third person had been thoroughly investigated and dismissed by authorities, it came up again in a big way. >> benitez is on the record with a startling allegation, that vergara's boss orchestrated the whole thing. >> correct. benitez came forth and he thought that bill boecker had something to do with it. >> this was a major allegation coming very late in the game. to this day, it's something the boeckers never knew. >> did you hear what edson benitez said at his sentencing about you? >> we don't know anything. >> at the sentencing edson benitez told the court, he said, i just know that he, vergara,

went to do that, because his manager told him to, referring to you. >> he wasn't working for bill at the time. >> right, but he knew you had known him. that's what he said, he -- that you put him up to it. did you have anything to do with earl's murder, bill? >> no, absolutely not. zero. zero knowledge. zero planning. zero inclination. nothing. >> this is the first time we've heard. it's so shocking. >> and it's upsetting to you obviously. >> for someone to say that my husband is the murderer, i mean, come on. he's a kind person. he would never hurt anybody. we get nothing from earl's death. we loss. >> relationship with a grandfather figure, a mentor. and why would i want somebody like that out of my life? >> even after benitez and vergara pleaded guilty and were sentenced, two years after, in fact, some of earl's surviving family members were still haunted by the case, and specifically by accusations

against the boeckers. >> earl's family had hired a private investigator to look into the case. they had continued to believe that the boeckers had some sort of involvement. >> the thrust of the investigation by that private investigator was to see whether you specifically were involved. >> us? >> yeah. >> really? >> no. >> how does that make you feel? >> it's upsetting, because you have the guy -- obviously you have the guy and we love earl. and i don't know how else we can prove we love earl. >> contained in the case file is an interview that the p.i. did with benitez while he was in minnesota's stillwater prison. benitez said that henry told him bill boecker wanted earl olander dead because he wanted earl's land to build a house on. this is years after there had been another tip alleging almost the same thing, that the boeckers wanted earl's land. >> we always joked, earl, we would love to live next to you.

we can come help you out. we always said that we would love to live next door to earl. >> and that's fine, no hard feelings, nothing. >> you know, even as a caretaker. >> benitez also made other allegations about bill helping out vergara after he was charged with murder. >> he thought it was the boeckers that were paying for vergara's attorney. >> there was nothing there involving the boeckers that we came up with and that would indicate that they were involved. >> has vergara ever implicated bill or maria boecker? >> no, never. i had heard a visit that maria boecker had done with vergara. she was extremely upset at him and was yelling at him, how could you do this? and it felt very real, in my opinion and it was very emotional. >> in the end, though, was there any credible evidence that either of the boeckers was involved in the killing of earl? >> no, there was not. >> just as things are getting back to normal for earl's community, everything changes. >> then there is the case of 90-year-old earl olander.

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in the lead up to the 2016 election donald trump was campaigning for president. imagine everyone's surprise when he mentioned the murder of earl olander in a campaign speech. >> then there is the case of 90-year-old earl olander who was brutally beaten and left to bleed to death in his home. 90 years old and defenseless. >> he had done a speech on immigration in arizona. during that speech where he was talking about undocumented immigrants he mentioned this case. >> the perpetrators were illegal immigrants with criminal records a mile long.

>> earl's case was center stage in a game of political football. what did you think of that? >> some of the statements were inconsistent. he had said that the suspects had a criminal history a mile long. they didn't. they didn't have very much of a criminal history prior to the murder of earl. >> edson benitez and reinol vergara have now served six years in prison for earl's murder. i reached out to them for their side of this story. benitez wrote me back and i shared that letter with jim olson. i got this letter. so i wanted to read it to you to see what you thought. >> benitez mailed that? >> yes. i received your letter. interesting. i reckon that you and your people have reasons to believe that there is more to the circumstances surrounding the death of mr. earl olander than what you read in those case files. i went on to read the entire letter in which benitez never says what they stole, but he continues to suggest that not everyone involved in earl's murder is currently behind bars.

it was a better sale to the white establishment to exclusively vilify two men of color for the murder of an affluent white man, not another white man. when i read that to you, tell me what you think. >> the sheriff's office would always be open if there's additional information that mr. benitez has, especially if a third person is involved. he should come forward, sit down and talk to us. >> edson benitez refused to answer any more questions in subsequent letters and emails and vergara never did respond. the carver county attorney issued a statement that said, after law enforcement exhaustively investigated the murder and followed up on every lead, there was no reliable or credible evidence that a third person was involved in the murder of earl olander. >> are you confident that all the guilty parties are now behind bars? >> i am. i think that he's deflecting his involvement and that we did a

thorough investigation. >> for that bible to end up being the way that crime was solved is so clearly to me a way that god intervened in the story, to not only give some peace to his family and his loved ones, but also to this whole community that was really racked in grief and rocked in fear and all those things, to just be able to let everybody rest and be at peace. >> this was one of those cases that stick with you and actually even haunt you because of what happened to earl. >> moving on for us is never forgetting earl. >> his stone has a tractor on it and it's his allis chalmers wd tractor. that was pretty important to him, so that was a nice little tribute to him. >> it was just senseless and tragic how he died and it was over basically nothing that they took from him.

>> what i've learned in this case is that earl should, and will, never be forgotten. what also won't be forgotten is the way that his senseless murder was solved with what those who knew earl best say is divine intervention. >> it's that tap on the shoulder or it's that direction you're pointed from somebody above. >> his murder being solved because of his family bible was just incredible. >> to me, there are no coincidences. there's only god incidences and that's -- to me, that was the i'm going to close this chapter for earl. > i just think he would really, really love that you're here in his church. one of earl's relatives took some of the wood from earl's farm and fashioned it into this amazing table. i kind of like to think of it as if earl, from heaven, is kind of

gathering us around, right? it's just kind of this powerful way that even after his death, he still is a leader here. >> that table is where decisions are made for the future of the church and where one of its most beloved members will never be forgotten. >> as for that case-breaking bible, it's now in the hands of earl olander's family. >> and his legacy and his farm continue on. it's still being worked by the same family that helped him farm the land for three generations. that's our program for tonight. i'm amy robach. >> and i'm david muir. from all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, good night. ama: local agencies gearing up

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