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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  April 10, 2022 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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forever seared into the public consciousness, evil personified. the man some say it helped bring down the curtain on the 60s as an age of innocence. who ultimately in his own twisted way achieved the fame he had been seeking all along. >> that is all for this edition of dateline, i'm natalie morales, thanks for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> only her feet were exposed. can. those were her last hours. >> young women murdered or missing. families in english. >> i would text her and she would text right back. but this time, nothing. >> when they killed her, they killed me.
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>> a serial killer at work and maybe he had a friend. >> that is crazy, they don't work together? serial killers are loners. >> very. rare >> to suspected killers on the hunt. >> hunting them, a detective devoted to justice, and more. >> it's almost like you adopted these young women? >> there are a lot of visits at my church where i pray to not screw this up. >> hello and welcome to dateline. they were young woman with their whole lives ahead of them. then, one by one, they started to vanish. it would take a determined detective willing to go into dark places to uncover the diabolical plot behind these disappearances. here is keith morrison with "good and evil". >> how do you measure a mother 's love or gauge the ferocity
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for impulse to protect? >> i loved her as much as i could. it was the only thing. >> how to measure love as visceral as the beating heart in her own body? >> she was my first born. she was my best friend. >> will understand the four mothers you will meet tonight and their connection. none of them would've thought this possible in years. any more than they would've expected to meet her, their guardian angel. >> the it was in my. well >> it's a rare mystery that is truly a confrontation of good and evil. >> you have to go to the dark places in order to find answers. >> a rare mystery that needed an urgent answer before the evil struck again. it was march 14th, 2014, early morning. an army of garbage trucks made their growling, clanking way around the thousands of trash
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bins and dumpsters in california. their destination, a landfill which is also a literal mountain of garbage, 500 feet high why midmorning, and attendance separating debris on the conveyor belt saw something. is that a human foot protruding from the pile of trash? surely not. >> it was on the conveyor belt, only her feet were exposed and the initially the workers there thought it was a mannequin. >> but it was not a mannequin as a responding homicide it's active could plainly see. it was, or had been, a woman. her body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp. >> we had no idea who she was, we had no idea where she came from, how she ended up there. >> something about the dead girl got to the detective, ending up this way, an anonymous child food --
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in the garbage dump so the detective did which always does, she bought a rosary -- >> it is a way for me to kind of connect to my victims. >> unusual? maybe. but the detective should rely on her profound catholic faith to self crimes. but we julissa trapp does. >> cases need time and work. >> the rosary helps? you >> it does. if she could solve this case, he would give the rosary to the dead woman's family. but first, she had to figure out who she was. what there was one identifying mark on her neck, 1 to 2, jodi, was that her name? reaching, now detective filled trapp up the police departments database of tattoos, they had. one district descriptions of
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tattoos were written of the encounters that they had. and would you, know there was a match. but her name was not jodi, it was jarrae, jarrae we estepp she was 21 years old. >> she had been contacted here a year prior in anaheim, beach boulevard. >> beach boulevard? certainly the detectives case check on a new complexion. >> he faces beach boulevard where you come to buy drugs. a lot of them came from good, stable families that happen to run into the wrong guy who somehow got them into the job these pimps are really good about breaking down the women and getting control over them. >> making them a prime target for predators. >> a lot of predators will start with prostitutes because they think that people will not
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miss them. >> somebody does. >> yes. somebody does. we somebody did. >> like we jarrae's mother who, records revealed, lived in a tiny town in oklahoma. that tattoo on jarrae the's neck? this is jodi. and even before the detective got the words out -- >> i felt that she was gone. >> her daughter had been so happy, so charming, outgoing. but then, said jodi, a boyfriend convinced jarrae that to please him, she would have to turn tricks. this is jarrae. >> we just honked trying to get her -- attention >> a self proclaimed group vigilante group caught on camera caught her on camera back in 2012. but jarrae left the boyfriend. turned her life around, so jodi thought. and then that awful phone call from detective trapp bob. >> i was screaming, like screaming.
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>> the detective made a promise to that mother, it didn't matter what choices jarrae may have made, she, the detective, woodwork this case as hard as any she ever had. >> it literally went from each little motel, each little motel, showing her picture, and having the clerk right -- look at her name to see if she stayed there. >> eventually she found the room where jarrae had been staying in which there was 70 -- $700 of cash, mascara, contact lens solution, but nothing that would lead her to a suspect. nothing here. from the disposal company, she got a list of the doctors -- service trucks that service that morning. and she and other officers went dumpster diving hundreds of dumpsters. >> but would you be looking for? >> we were -- we were all given pictures of the trash that looked around her. if it looks similar, take pictures of what's inside. >> no luck.
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waste of time. but then, back on the conveyor belt. and odd thing turned up in the trash next to weeks jarrae's body. >> there was a fingerprint. it was on the caulking tube and a much someone, a window installer who worked for a company called hearty windows. >> they said we always bring it back to hearty windows. >> well what do you found, a dumpster that had not been emptied. there was one dumpster that had been left off the list for police. >> the same blue plastic wrapping and was almost as though i was looking at the same trash i had seen on the conveyor belt. >> bingo. they had not been for that lucky fingerprint, they would've missed. it was that like? >> it was a combination of frustration but, okay, all
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right, we are moving somewhere. >> so jarrae was dumped here sometime in the morning of march 14th, miles, and from the spot where according to her cellphones record she had placed her last call 7 pm the night before. how far away wooded would it have been? >> 20 miles. >> but that is all the detective knew. a week upon by. everyone at hardy windows was clear, no suspects at all. detective trapp went to church, with a rosary, worried, prayed, and wondered. >> i have heard a story on the news that there were three missing prostitutes in the city of santa ana witches. >> right next door? basically >> yes. >> what if this was not the killer's first time, or last? >> coming up with, for young
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women into neighboring towns now missing or dead. was there a link? >> we were like, well what are the odds that they are related? >> when dateline continues. rfect car, under budget too! and i get seven days to love it or my money back... i love it! i thought online meant no one to help me, but susan from carvana had all the answers. she didn't try to upsell me. not once, because they're not salespeople! what are you...? guess who just checked in on me? mom... susan from carvana! [laughs] we'll drive you happy at carvana. we're eating and drinking foods and beverages that are very acidic. it can soften the enamel. pronamel repair, what it's doing is driving more minerals deep into the enamel surface, that's going to help actively repair. pronamel is taking it to another level. ♪ ♪ fight fleas and ticks with seresto. eight months continuous protection
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>> so she looked them up and learned about kiana jackson. she was 20 years old when she disappeared five months before jarrae's death. >> she was just a fun loving child, always made you laugh. >> just look at her childhood photos, that's silly grin, she loved her dog, her little brother, playing softball. and then it started happening, said kathy. eighth grade or so. >> she was kind of getting typical teenage -- and high school came and getting around the older kids she got, you know, worse. >> how did you cope with? that >> one day at a time. and loved her as much as i could. it was about the only thing. >> after high school, kiana went to college about a three hour drive from home. a year later, she moved to las vegas, very far from home now. she got closer and closer to her mom. >> she would call me every day, talk to me every day, text
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message. >> just a loving daughter? >> yes, i did not think anything that was happening. >> no idea, even in october 2013 when kianna called to say -- >> she was in the bus towards santa ana. >> did you say? why >> visiting friends is what she told. me >> but then, the girl who called her mother almost daily stopped calling. >> i would start going, wait a second, this is not right. i would text her and she would text right back. but this time nothing, nothing. >> gone, not a peep to her mom, to her friends, to her boyfriend. kathy went to the police. >> when i called to file a missing persons report they said that she is an adult and there is nothing we can do for you. >> but you knew that there was a? problem >> yeah. >> so cathy started doing her own digging, checked her daughter down to a motel in orange county where the trail ended. her clothes where there, but she wasn't.
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again, she called the police. >> and they said, oh that happens, sometimes prostitutes just work circuits -- >> prostitute? >> and i said, no. that can't be. >> but then the truth came crashing down. undeniable. kianna had missed a scheduled court date in santa ana for a prostitution charge. >> but wait a minute, you talk to her every day? >> this -- is exactly. >> and you knew you nothing of the secret? >> nothing. >> what does it feel like as a mom to hear that that that was going on all that time and you do know? it >> heartbreaking. >> when she heard kathy story, detective trapp began thinking she was on to something. then she discovered two and a half weeks after kianna disappear, there was another one. josephine monique vargas. >> she had a beautiful personality. the color giggles because she made people laugh. >> josephine's mother, priscilla, was on the news searching her daughter for.
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months after she left the family barbecue to go get groceries. >> that was the last time that any of us saw or heard of. her >> priscilla went to the santa ana police department, filed a report. >> they didn't really do anything to look for. her >> so she did. >> nothing was going to stop me from looking for my daughter. nothing, or no one. >> and it was pure chance when priscilla ran into another mother, desperate to find her daughter. martha, 28 years old and a mother herself. who just vanished one day. >> well [interpreter] there's no way she would've left, we would say, i'm going and living everything. behind >> so martha's mother and priscilla went up and down the boulevard together. >> we made thousands of fliers she and i were on a mission to find our daughters. >> but no sign of their daughters anywhere.
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the detective trapp collected their portraits, hung them on her off his wall. and she stayed awake and prayed in her catholic way. >> do you ever wonder why god would allow this to happen? >> i do. there have been plenty of times that i've been angry with our maker because you have to wonder why does this happen? i wish you would talk to me and that would be very helpful. but i had to figure out what happened. just read the clues, collect the puzzle pieces, and the more you can keep a neutral mind, these are the puzzle pieces fit together. >> now getting around it, the pieces pointed to a chilling conclusion. those three missing woman, just like jarrae may have been murdered. and if that was true, it would mean that there was a serial killer out there in the night. there had to be. more deaths would be coming. unless one idea, it was grasping at straws, yes, but -- >> you know what? in my workout.
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why not. let's try it with. >> coming up when -- >> all sex offenders will have one -- gps monitor. >> tracking the killer victim by victim. when dateline continues. that oddly satisfying feeling when you don't do it yourself.
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>> it is bad. it was bad. the it was bad. >> strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted, viciously. according to a deputy da larry yellin. >> she should be worrying about grades, boyfriends, and football games. those things. >> one wrong turn and they're gone. >> yeah. >> but almost three weeks in, detective he detective trapp seemed stuck. >> i think she got frustrated and a little desperate and came up with the idea of using the computer database. >> that is the computer database of sex offenders. if they had a serial killer on their hands, there was at least a chance he had already ran a file with them at some point. it was a little bit like putting the finger into that haystack and was trying to encounter a needle. it was worth a. try so trapp called this woman, who laura low mentally.
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>> they will all have a gps meter. >> was there gps meter here where he jarrae was last making a phone call, or. here >> what's where the chances? she got a hit in both locations. she called detective trapp. >> there's only one person. she said i know. him i said who? she said, his name is the franc cano, he's a registered sex offender. >> in 2007, franc cano committed -- allude act on a minor. he was not put on a gps monitor. next question, did franc cano monitor put him near the places where the other three women, according to phone records, made their last calls?
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well kianna, josephine, and martha? >> and every intersection for that date and time that they gave me, franc cano came up. >> wow. >> for every single intersection, i was shocked. >> but something about that man, look franc cano what. you had a buddy. and she ran into them. both >> i knew that he had a friend. look steven gordon. the >> steven gordon, he had done time for molesting a minor and later for kidnapping. he and cano were inseparable apparently. once the detective pulled up the gps coordinates, where martha was last seen and santa ana, no the gordon. but when she took locations for kayla kianna and josephine? there he was. she check the record and
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discovered that at that particular moment, was gordon not on the gps monitor, but he was wearing one of the other three print places. and so was cano. the electronics made it absolutely obvious, here they were cano and gordon, driving together, up and down beach boulevard, and santa ana. >> they were on the freeway -- >> they were in the same. car >> the same vehicle. >> detector trapp had prayed for a hail mary and she did not expect anything like this. >> i soon realized, i am not just dealing with one, we are dealing with two? to sex offenders wearing gps bracelets? >> well before the electronic cross referencing, the case between cano and gordon was purely circumstantial. she could not arrest them not without more evidence.
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and that was terrifying. >> there were young women who were at real risk here? and if you waited too long -- how would you feel if somebody else was attacked? >> there are a lot of writ rosaries that were being preyed on for sure. >> she set up a surveillance team to's watch cano around the clock. and they pulled self and records. >> we started reading their text messages and seeing how prolific they were at hunting. >> hunting? >> hunting. on almost a daily basis. and how nonchalant they were about it. it was almost like ordering takeout we start reading, would you feel like today? asian or mexican? >> oh boy. what do they call these girls? >> that was the other thing. cats. >> cats? >> well cats. be careful, when the cats know they are getting, away it is going to fight. >> the next victim can be far
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away because gordon texted cano, kitty cat later yes. to which cano responded, okay. and then a sudden change. had they spotted the surveillance? as we trapp listen to the wiretap, she heard gordon talk to cano about skipping town. >> i could hear the desperation in cano's wise. that desperation kind of sent my hair standing on the back of my back and i said. i am not going to wait anymore. they're gonna run. >> time to move, fast. they caught up to cano as he was boarding a bus. and stephen gordon? they found him where he worked, at an auto body shop next door to hearty windows. but -- >> he made a run for. it >> ran out the door? >> on the bicycle. yes. he had a little collision with one of our surveillance units and a little flying over the handlebars and he was taken into custody.
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>> both men were charged with four counts each of first agree murder, forceable rape. >> hi steven? >> hi. >> and detective trapp prepared to confront a suspected serial killer. >> coming up -- >> i knew this was going to be a lot different in any other interview i hadn't. >> take out with the killer. >> it is spicy. >> i told you. i told you to be careful. >> when dateline continues. eight months continuous protection against fleas and ticks. it's effective and vet recommended. seresto. learn more at seresto.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful time of the year ♪ get fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms, learn more at seresto.com. including nasal congestion, with powerful claritin d, so you can breathe better. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. claritin d. how did olay top expensive creams? like this
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voicemails threatening senate -- firearms or seized from his home. and, jennifer lopez and ben affleck are engaged again as the popstar nails to her
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intentions to marry athletic. the couple known -- us we're one of the biggest celebrity couples in the early 2000s. now back to dateline. >> for six months, kathy menzies waited for news about her daughter, kianna. still woke up every day hoping she would call or text. and writing a knock on the door. which, in april 2014, is what happened. >> my heart sunk when they came, because i knew right away that it was going to be good news. >> no. not good news at all. anaheim police told her that two men, franc cano and steven gordon we're now under arrest for the murder of her daughter and three other young women in orange county. what were you like that night? >> i just wanted to sleep. i wanted to go to sleep and week up and pinch myself -- >> and make it a different
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world? >> exactly. >> detective julissa trapp wanted to speak with both men, of course. but cano lowered up. so she tried gordon, still in a wheelchair after his bike accident. >> hi, stephen. >> hi. >> how are you? i knew this was going to be a lot different than any other interview i had done. he's cunning, manipulative -- >> he didn't have to talk to you. >> he did not have to talk to me. >> are you called? do you want a blight kit? >> if you don't mind. >> no. >> but detective trapp has a way, as they say. you're compassionate? >> thank you,. >> you're welcome. >> you are kind to him. you brought him a blanket. food. >> there are your chips. >> yes, we actually shared two meals together. >> is it spicy? >> i told you. i told you be careful. >> even so, gordon was reluctant, at first.
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>> would you rather talk to somebody else? >> i don't want to talk to anybody. >> if you watched me very carefully. if i swallowed too hard. if i looked at him differently. he would say, what's wrong? >> you have a word look on your set face when i said where. >> so, he was constantly trying to keep a poker face to continue to elicit information from him. >> did you try to play you? >> oh, i think he definitely think he did. for sure. >> that by bit, she pulled out answers. for herself, and for those for mothers. >> did she go by the name kayla? >> it starts with a key, kianna. >> she told me her name was kayla. >> detective trapp presented him with photographs. he identified all four women. >> saw her, her her,, right?
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>> each murder when the same way, he said. he and cano pick them up and his suv. drove them back to the auto body shop were gordon worked. they took turns having their way. and then, just as each woman prepared to leave -- >> strangled her with my hands. >> you strangled her? >> some of the details in that 13 our interview were almost more that even a seasoned detective could stand to hear. >> as he was hurting martha, she told him, i didn't believe in god, but i do now. there's a part of me that is grateful that she found god at the end. it's disturbing to me that, in response he said, you picked a hell of a time to start believing in god. i'll never forget that. >> but she had it. a full confession. she called jarrae,'s mother,
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jodi. >> i dropped to my knees. detective trapp gave me her word that she would find who killed my daughter. >> detective trapp had kept her word. now she bought three more rosaries and wondered, could she bring those women home? gordon had told her all of them had been left in the same dumpster. the contents of which were brought here, orange county's prima deshecha landfill. we're except for jarrae, they all still were in there somewhere. >> we did a lot of research and we had every intention to try and dig for them. >> but the bodies had to be 40 feet deep by now. digging for them would cost
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millions. they might never be found. and the county couldn't afford that. and they're just over there, somewhere? >> yes. >> 40 feet down? >> yes. >> what's that like? what does that feel like? >> it's frustrating. it's frustrating knowing that they are here and we can't bring them home. it's like the one thing that the mothers want, and i get it. to not be able to do that, it feels -- it's incomplete. >> does it drive you crazy? >> yes, it does. >> kathy menzies knows, logically, her daughter kianna must be dead. but how to truly accept it, without her body? >> i would go there today and start digging if they would let me. >> matters, doesn't it? >> it does matter. >> >> >> an attempt to make sense of it all, kathy as detective trapp and her partner to drive her to the place where the killers had picked up kianna. >> she wanted to go to this
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last spot. why, may i ask why? >> kind of because it was the last known spot that she was at. but i was told she was alive at that spot. so, kind of a closure. just to see where she was at when -- before they took her. >> that broke her heart to do it. take this tour of her daughters last hours. >> i think this is the dead end street that gordon, cano entered and turn around. and somewhere in this section right here is where she was at. >> just an ordinary place. but so painful. >> it was hard. it's difficult to see. i mean, it's not what i expected. the area.
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of course, what she was doing is no mothers wish. but just to see this area. to know that it was in what i envisioned. it was in a dirty, dark, nasty, gross area. >> kathy and some piece in that that knowing, the seeing. but why kianna's life was taken? so much harder to comprehend. >> i don't think a lot about that i will be ever be able to accept it. it's hard. it's hard. >> criminal trials are one way the grieving find answers. and with a confession, the trial of stephen gordon look like a formality. or, so the prosecutor might have hoped. and then the judge made that ruling. oh, boy. >> a suspected serial killer turns that case against him upside down. coming up -- >> it's the piece that brings everything together.
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and that was gone. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabetes zone. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk.
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larry yellin weighed his chances against serial killer stephen gordon especially when gordon decided to act as his own defense attorney. >> he's very. bright very bright.
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>> he is bright enough -- >> smart enough to know that he should not be representing himself. >> but expectation can be a dangerous thing. before the trial even began, gordon struck the prosecutor's case a major blow. >> remember that moment early in his interview where he seemed to reject detective trapp's question? >> i can't talk to you. >> would you rather talk to somebody else? >> i don't want to talk to anybody. >> gordon argued that continuing the interview at that point was a miranda violation, even though trapp had read him his rights at the onset. the judge agreed ruled that the jury could not see a frame of gordon's confession. >> when he makes the ruling,
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then it's out. it's punched in the stomach. >> because what are you missing? then everything. >> well a confession. it is the piece that brings everything together and focuses on the four girls, and now that is gone. >> all of these women have a special meaning for me and when it got thrown out i had a really hard time. >> but then gordon asked for a meeting and sprang another surprise. he wanted larry yellin to drop the rape charges. >> why would he give you and return? >> he said i will give you a statement that you can use against me in this case. >> mister gordon we are going to start. >> so on the eve of trial, detective trapp once again set face to face with stephen gordon. and he once again took her through each crime. >> so your intention was also to kill her? >> yes. >> okay. >> that was played for the jury. and then? how bizarre was this. gordon suddenly decided he wanted the jury to hear his first confession to. which meant that the mothers had to hear every graphic detail of their daughters murders. >> and i thought that maybe a
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prayed that rosary too hard because we have two statements in. >> the jury wasted no time convicting gordon of four counts of murder. >> the they recommended the death penalty. >> verdict must be recorded. >> four for mothers, a measure of justice. >> thank you. >> kathy had sat through the entire trial, as brutal as it was. what has it into your understanding of human beings? >> they are evil. the there is a lot of evil in this world, lots of it. >> the mothers will have to sit through another trial, frank cano is still waiting for his. but for detective trapp it was a measure of relief, and finally, she gave those rosaries to for mother -- grieving mothers. >> it is interesting to discover, in this final work that homicide detectives are actually softies.
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>> i think that the more you allow yourself to feel, the better you are going to be as a detective and we have to go to the dark places in order to find answers. the quicker we can get in and out the better it is for all of us. >> answers from dark places. we went to the jail where gordon was kept before his transfer to death row. here he was, a man who claimed to know the nature of his evil acts. but did he, we wonder? >> i screwed up. >> what is screwed up the right expression to you? >> we probably not. we i just didn't want to say what i really think. >> well why don't you? >> we it is -- it's beyond evil. what happened. what was me and him did was beyond evil. >> but then came, sure enough, the excuse. he's worked it out in his head, that the pearl system is
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somehow to blame for his crimes. after all, a sex offender, he and frank cano should not have been allowed to be together. that was a parole violation. and the fact that their parole officers did not prevent a violation, he said, means the state is responsible. >> we chose to be together, we were allowed. there is a difference. >> we youth really? that's what little kids say to their parents. you let me do the bad, thing it's your. fault >> i didn't say that they let us do a bad. thing i said that they let asleep and hang out at the same spot. and they did. beside what anybody said -- >> you are going to parse that argument? >> so the day i die, because i know for the fact that it is. true >> what i want to know it is because that is on you what -- was going on in your head to make you want to do it? to participate in whatever you participated in, to get whatever thrill you wanted. what was the thrill? but was? it >> i don't think there was a thrill. >> there's no thrill, why did
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you do? it >> there is no thrill in watching women die like that. but i will go back to it again and again, it was my anger issues that i have from everything that happened while we were all pearl and probation. >> we may never know exactly why but jarrae was killed or, martha, josephine, or kianna. but there is one more mystery hiding in this mountain, the final mystery law. >> coming up long -- >> to me, she is an angel in disguise. an angel that carries a badge and a gun. >> an angel whose job is not done. >> he looks to me and goes, your missing one. when >> dateline continues. a bit of a buzz kill, right? so she ordered sunglasses with prime, one day delivery. ♪♪ clever girl. people realized she's actually hilarious once you get to know her. eugh. as if. ♪♪
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four dead daughters. their sorrow, of course. >> when they killed her, they killed me. >> and a measure of solidarity to have each other, especially priscilla and linda. >> now that we know what's happened to our daughters, i know we will still be friends until the end. because she is walking in the same shoes i am. >> we asked them about julissa trapp. >> this case was solved because of her.
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>> to me, she's an angel in disguise. an eagle that carries a badge and a gun. >> their own guardian angel who brought all of them answers. the how, the moms wondered. and two men who were supposed to be under supervision by parole officers. who are being trapped in realtime by edgy p. s. ankle bracelet. how could they have committed
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the terrible crimes they were charged with? how could this happen? >> how can this happen? why were they not being monitored? it was definitely a hard question to get from the mothers of themselves, as well. why wasn't it caught sooner? >> sure. >> jarrae's jodi to the the california department of corrections feeling saying it failed to adequately monitor gordon and cano. the state denied the claims in the case was dismissed. jodi also sue the u.s. government agents of u.s. probation. that case was dismissed as well. and the administration office of the u.s. court published a report that said federal probation officers followed policies and procedures. >> can we actually look at the 14th? >> as for detective trapp, there was one last mystery to solve. >> yes. >> because when she first talked to stephen gordon, he revealed something she wasn't expecting. >> he looks at me and he goes, your missing one. which caught me off guard and i tried not to show too much emotion. i said, okay. and that was the first time i've learned about jane though. was from him.
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>> jane doe, according to gordon, there was a fifth victim. >> did she see where she was from? >> she said she was from compton. >> i feel a responsibility because jane doe is not a missing person. she is an unknown and i feel like if i don't look for her, who will? i know there is a family out there wondering where she is. >> and so, she looked. cheek comb through missing persons reports. she put up flyers. searched, breed, and yes, bought another rosary. why is it so important to give jane doe a name? do you, personally? >> i just think because she is so helpless. you're on the street. you are working as a prostitute. and you run into steven gordon and franc cano, and your last hours on this earth are horrific. and then they discovered you like trash. >> trash. detective trapp is still haunted by trash. and that keeps bringing her mind back here. >> even though it is a landfill, it is quite peaceful when it is quiet. >> some were under here, in
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addition to kianna, josephine and martha, there was victim number five. and so detective trapp worked her sources until she had a name. it would be reasonable to say, okay, that's her. >> absolutely. logically, yes. absolutely. >> and yet, when we first spoke with her, she couldn't quite bring herself to tell yet another mother her suspicions. >> i not only have to go tell her she's done. i have to tell her that she's one of these girls. so, that's going to be hard. i think.
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>> out here with us she seemed to be willing herself. pulling strength from jane doe herself. >> i think in her own way she, will help me. she'll help me. i don't think she wants to be jane doe forever. >> and then a couple of months later, she let us know she called on the fifth mother and gave her the news. that sable pickett, just 19 years old, cross paths with gordon and cano in the streets of orange county and did not survive. no charges are pending for her murder. but another family can finally stop wondering. on the side detectives often tell us they work for the dead. up here on landfill mountain we understood that a little better. as detective julissa trapp grip to rosary, the one for sable, we walked away and gave her time. and her microphone picked up something. >> hail mary, full of grace. blasted are that. less is's -- >> mountain's of trash. things we use and cast away. but for detective julissa trapp this will always be hallowed ground. >> it's hard to look at that
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and know that's where you ended up. but i know you guys are all in a better place. your altogether. you're helping each other. you can rest now. and i can take it from here. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline". >> she can lie to you, make love to, kill you, all in the same week. and not even cry at the funeral. >> she was living that dream california lifetime. you talk about housewives of orange county, she could've been on the show. she wrapped him around the figure, just like europe so many men around the figure. >> she had all. waterfront home, fancy cars, millionaire boyfriend.

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