be a red flag. and that's that's a hard no for me. and i've never asked anyone for their location. if you say you're going to be at my house at 730 and you're running a few minutes late, you text me and let me know. i don't need to check and see and then wonder, okay, why is he you know, at the house all the way across the street? i know that, yeah, okay. well, this has been fun. appreciate it. nice to nice to have you, greg and phil. nice to meet you. and claudine. okay, so before we go, we want to let you know that we would love to hear from you. so send us >> i'm anna garcia right now on true crime news. the mystery of a missing girl leads to a potential serial killer investigation. just like in silence of the lambs. >> we'll keep looking and hopefully find her, but we're not going to give in to him. >> cops raced to find 17 year old alexis murphy. >> i'll let your girl granny. >> gas station surveillance video captures the last time she was seen and leads investigators

right to this man. >> he's the kind of person that makes the hair on your neck stand up. >> but is he responsible? or could it be a serial killer striking other young girls in the same small town? plus the brutal murder of lori smith. >> there was a pool of blood and you could see drag marks. >> the case was cold for 20 years, but cops finally caught her killer. how? his family helped to take him down. we will never get over it. but justice needs to be served. welcome to true crime. news, police in old lovingston, virginia were worried. fearful that they had two killers hunting young girls at the same time. beautiful alexis murphy disappeared after last being seen at a local gas station. and she wasn't the only one. now, cops are wondering how many predators are among them. >> in case y'all didn't know,

it's black girl sunday senior pictures are right around the corner for alexis murphy and the vivacious, social media loving 17 year old is headed out to get her hair done by. to make this long drive. i'll let you, girl. >> but in the wee hours of sunday morning, alexis grandmother awakes to a terrifying discovery. alexis didn't make her midnight curfew. >> she had never done that before. that's something that's not right. that's not alexis. >> the local sheriff's department is notified of the missing teen. >> they called the state police in, and they had the helicopter in the air that night. the fbi was on ground, too. >> they weren't alone. alexis. large social media following brought out hundreds of searchers. then, just three days after alexis goes missing, police make a disturbing discovery. >> her father's car that she was driving was found in a movie theater parking lot here in

charlottesville. you know, abandoned. nobody was in it. >> at some point. someone was captured on nearby mall surveillance cameras. >> you couldn't see who got out of it, though. it was just a very grainy black and white surveillance video. it was at night we were never able to see on the camera who drove the car, but investigators get a hunch it was more or less just brainstorming where she could possibly go. >> the liberty gas station in lovingston, where local teens hang out after school and on weekends. >> and sure enough, we did find video of her coming into the gas station and purchasing gas shortly before she disappeared. >> when detectives studied the tape, this time they see a man holding a door for a woman to leave the store, and she just she walks out, doesn't look at him, doesn't say anything. >> she doesn't stop. just like it's just an everyday, you know,

nothing extraordinary about it. >> they noticed the man has a large and unique neck tattoo. and there's something else. the man's equally distinctive car, a camouflaged suburban. at the same time, the fbi zeroed in on alexis's cell phone signal, pinging and eerily close, maybe one mile north of that gas station. when fbi and the state police swarmed the remote area of the cell phone's location, they spot a very conspicuous camouflage suburban that was pulled also into that area. and there, detectives are greeted by a familiar visual. >> he had a very large tattoo on his neck of daffy duck. he's the kind of person that makes the hair on your neck. stand up. >> the man identifies himself as randy taylor and invites detectives inside his camper, where something sparkly catches a detective's eye, a diamond

stud in the carpet, as well as a fingernail on the pillow of his bed. >> there was a long black hair that was consistent with an african american female. >> investigators gathered the diamond stud strand of hair and broken fingernail as evidence, and they soon learned, matched alexis's dna. >> once that was a match, he became a clear suspect then, but randy says he can explain, telling detectives they have it all wrong. once he knew that we knew, he finally said, okay, i saw her. he said that her and as he put it, a black guy with with dreadlocks came to his camper to get drugs. they drank a few beers and then she left his camper, as he put it, laughing and smiling. and that was the last that he saw of her. >> randy even gives cops a name. >> his name was damien bradley and mr. bradley, you know, he

knew of alexis. you know, we go and talk to him because, i mean, we want to get to the bottom of this. he flat out denies even ever meeting mr. taylor. he certainly wasn't the last person to be with alexis. the weekend that this happened, he was with his father in alabama. he wasn't even in town with potentially incriminating dna and randy's false statements. >> cops have enough to arrest him on abduction charges. >> it was at that point that we felt that we really needed to get inside the camper and to start, you know, we started developing probable cause to get a search warrant. >> once they get one, they're under the couch. they make a dreadful discovery. >> they found a t shirt balled up under the sofa, and it had black hair extensions and then a set of artificial eyelashes. there was a stain on the back of the shirt. it turned out that it was blood. >> and just like before, the dna

on the eyelashes, the hair extensions and the blood stain matched alexis's dna. it's a scrapbook, and when they open it, they get a glimpse inside the mind of a potential madman. >> pornographic pictures. the faces of those images were cut out. photos of a female were taped on top of those photos. >> now authorities begin to wonder if something bigger is at play in the small town of lovingston, virginia. at this time, there are numerous police reports of other girls who have gone missing in the same area. all their cases, unsolved mysteries. >> something wasn't right. >> coming up, police think they have the right man, but do they? >> it's just one of those things that they couldn't quite put their finger on it. it just didn't seem right. >> but f they do, could he be a

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(dad) fargo, what did i spend on groceries this month? (son) hey dad, can the guys stay for dinner? (dad) no... (vo) learn more at wellsfargo.com/getfargo. cops had arrested 48 year old randy taylor on abduction charges after finding evidence in his camper linking him to alexis murphy. >> we wanted to punish mr. taylor for what he really did. >> with the increasing number of missing girls in the area,

authorities wonder if they actually had the right man, or if other predators are lurking in the area. >> investigators were helping us also to try to find some kind of link. >> four years earlier, 20 year old virginia tech student morgan harrington went missing from charlottesville, the same town where alexis's car was discovered. her body found three months later in a field south of town, and later, 19 year old samantha clark went missing in the town of orange, virginia, just minutes from charlottesville. her body was never found, and then after alexis disappeared, 18 year old hannah graham went missing. after a night out with college friends in charlottesville. five weeks later, her remains were discovered in a nearby abandoned property. >> they couldn't quite put their finger on it. it just didn't seem right. >> alexis had not been found and unsure whether or not the cases

are connected. prosecutors build a murder case for the teenager based on evidence from taylor's camper. >> so at that point, i started researching homicides without a body, and i ran across a case in virginia from the 1980s. her killer has been convicted, and he's in the department of corrections. >> then, in an unprecedented move, prosecutor anthony martin charges randy with alexis's murder. >> we should not reward a person by not charging him with murder just because they're good at hiding the body. >> a jury of five men and seven women found randy taylor guilty of first degree murder and abduction with intent to defile. he's given two life sentences. then, in a stunning turn of events in nelson county, just two months after randy taylor's murder conviction, this bombshell a suspected serial killer, is arrested nearby. his name jesse matthew.

>> he was a person of interest that came about and the morgan harrington case. and then he later came up with the uva student, hannah graham. >> jesse matthew is charged with the abduction and murder of morgan harrington and hannah graham. both went missing in the same area where alexis disappeared. and there's something about jesse matthew that stands out to investigators working the alexis murphy case. >> he was a large african american guy, the black guy with dreadlocks. >> the same description randy gave cops of the man he claimed left his camper with alexis. authorities begin to wonder if they've just convicted the wrong man. >> that's not good at all. we want to know what the truth is. >> cops take matthew's dna and compare it to samples extracted from evidence in randy's camper. the results come back, and it's a monumental moment. >> he was excluded from our

case. we strongly feel he had nothing to do with alexis case whatsoever. >> proof that randy taylor is alexis murphy's killer. but now, with hard dna evidence, taylor makes an 11th hour confession and wants to cut a new deal. >> he wants to give us the location or, as he put it, you know, tell you where she is. >> you heard right. randy tells prosecutors he'll tell them where alexis body is in exchange for reducing his two life sentences down to 20 years. alexis family is quick to react. >> i couldn't rest or my family couldn't rest knowing that we didn't do all that we could. that and we had the opportunity to put this monster away for forever. >> that means no deal for convicted killer randy taylor. sadly, it also means no real closure for alexis family. >> we'll keep looking and

hopefully find her, but we're not going to give in to him. >> it would take years, but randy taylor finally identifies the location of alexis's remains in a field off the highway, four miles from where she disappeared. >> randy taylor will never be out of prison to exact this kind of pain on someone else as a result of so many murders, alexis aunt is now working with an organization called help save the next girl by remembering alexis and the many others lost. alexis was abducted in broad, open daylight. if it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody. and if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. >> randy taylor is serving two life sentences for alexis's murder. he also is a person of interest in the disappearance of samantha clark, who has been missing since 2010. when we come back, she was savagely killed. >> i opened the door and she was laying in a puddle of blood in

the middle of the floor of the worst moment of my life. >> how cops finally nabbe her killer after 20 years. >> we need your help. >> go online. call or scan this code to support wwf's global conservation efforts by symbolically adopting an elephant for only $16 a month, it's just $0.53 a day to protect wildlife and their habitats. do it in the next five minutes and you'll get this free adoption

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closed captioning and other considerations for true crime news provided by what is circle? >> circle is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. circle is your frosted treat with a sweet kick of confidence. circle is the effortless energy that gets you in the zone. circle. available at walmart and drink circle.com. >> when our country needed you. you answered the call. you took the oath. you served and you sacrificed to defend our great country. visiting angels knows

veterans. you are the heroes among us. and we are honored to serve you. visiting angels, america's choice and home care. >> welcome back to true crime news. it was a savage murder. pools of blood left at the crime scene from the victim, lowry smith and her killer. a cold case that stumped detectives for more than two decades until they finally got a break in the case. and lori's grieving family saw the monster who killed her face. justice. >> she had no clothes on. >> there was a pool of blood, and you could see drag marks. >> she was in the fight for her life. >> she did everything right, worked hard, loved her family and friends. and in her small town of cliftondale, georgia, 28 year old lori anne smith even

served as a youth leader at her church. >> her passion was the guitar. i mean, if you look through the pictures that she had of herself, she had her guitar everywhere. >> after college, lori moved next door to her parents in rural georgia. it was a decision she made to be near the people she loved. ironically, a decision that would tear the family apart. she was only a few hundred feet away the last time lori's mom spoke to her. >> she says, i'm very tired. they camped out the night before. >> sometime later, something horrifying happened in the house on the other side of the yard. >> i went knocked on the door, no answer, and i opened the door and she was laying in a puddle of blood in the middle of the floor. the worst moment of my life. it was a nightmare. it was

the worst kind. i picked up the phone and i called 911. >> we believe this door is the door that the assailant entered the home. we found blood on these steps. she was fully unclothed. >> she was not going to open the door for anybody without clothing on. >> after that, she desperately fought for her life. >> we could tell that there was a very significant struggle. we had lamps turned over. we had sheeting pulled off the bed. she sustained abrasions on her face, contusions on her, both her arms and legs, as well as she sustained multiple gunshot wounds. somewhere during the struggle. she either injured him bad enough that he was bleeding heavily, or he may have shot himself. his blood was found in the living room by the entry

exit door to the porch. >> it's the kind of evidence homicide detectives count themselves lucky to find a crime scene signed with the suspect's own dna. >> we've eliminated over 119 people that we've collected dna from. it is frustrating to have the evidence you need, but you just cannot put a name to that evidence that you have questions that go unanswered for more than 20 years. >> but science was about to help change that, as the dna technology progressed, we resubmitted the dna to a private company. >> the newest technology looks at your dna and your genetic markers and traits, and it basically reverse engineers your dna. >> it's looking at those markers that make you african american, that make you caucasian, that

make you redheaded, blue eyed. >> and we can essentially create a photograph snapshot of what that person should look like based on those dna markers. >> the program developed by parabon nanolabs is called snapshot. these are the composites it produced, one for how the suspect may have looked then and how he might look today. >> when we actually saw that image, none of us recognized that person. >> and no one can say if lori did either. >> it is time to give this family closure. >> after more than two decades, closure would finally come using the same technology that caught the golden state killer known as familial dna, with a court order from a judge. authorities compare crime scene dna against available data in ancestry databases, and they get a hit.

his name is jerry lee, a correctional officer for the atlanta department of corrections. at the time of the murder, he lived less than a mile away from lori. police get a search warrant to collect his dna, and it's a match. 26 years after the brutal murder, lee pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, burglary and aggravated assault. a fulton county, georgia, judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison. >> we will never get over it. but ustice needs to be served. >> we'll be right back. >> right now, in our world, habitats are being destroyed and wildlife is facing an extinction crisis. but this holiday season, you can take action to protect wildlife and give the most meaningful gift of all. visit this website or call this number

or simply scan the code on your screen. donate just $16 a month to support wwf's global conservation work. you'll get this free holiday kit, including this wildlife calendar, a tote bag, and this adorable plush polar bear. this holiday season, help wwf pro wildlife and habitats and give a gift that will last for generations to come. act now. make your holiday gift

>> on the next true crime news. a house engulfed in flames in the middle of the desert. >> i remember thinking maybe vicki left the oven on. >> three dead bodies. >> i think becky was the focus of john and vicki were collateral damage. >> was this an accident, or did someone want this teen girl dead? >> it was very violent. it was

just shocking. >> the surprising clue investigators found in the ashes that could lead them closer to a killer. you put the pressure up. >> we did put the pressure on him. >> on the next true crime news. for the latest breaking crime news, go to true crime news.com. watch more exclusive content on our youtube channel, listen to our podcast and follow us at my true crime news. that's it for today's true crime news i'm anna garcia. see you next time, everyone. crime n (dramatic music) - how did this horrible story unfold? - a young girl all of a sudden disappears in the middle of the night. her friends had known that she had gone out on a tinder date. before her disappearance, sydney did go meet up with the person that she had met online who had awful intentions. - they were pleading their innocence as they were fleeing the state. - they'd been running these scams, hop town to town, pick up a different girl. - how did the community react to the murder? - it really did show how beautiful small communities could be. it brought us all together, that's for sur