el what are you going to tell your daughter about lanell? that i named her after an amazing woman, a woman who believed in helping people, a woman who was hard working, and a woman who believed in human beings being better versions of themselves. and i hope my daughter can be that person as well. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thanks for watching. ateline." rebecca moen: i remember the shock of learning of her murder. she was alone and, you know, frightened.

that's when i really first cried for brook, like really cried for her. greg winkler: brook's brother found her in her bedroom. she had been stabbed to death. dana winklepleck: she was a journalism major, editor of the school newspaper. it was so surprising that a 19-year-old college student would be murdered. and then there is a second student missing. and i was like, how could she be missing? i thought, that's not like erika. i knew something had happened, something bad. greg winkler: you could see blood on the walls, blood on the light switches. there was blood in the kitchen. bob dunham: i said, i think we have another murder by the same offender. hal johnston: they said, you need to catch this guy because he will probably strike again, and he'll be getting good at it. he was out there, just waiting. there's evil all around us. [theme music]

hello, and welcome to "dateline." college students brook baker and erika norman were ambitious young women, each hoping to leave her mark on the world. while they didn't know one another, brook and erika suffered the same tragic fate, a future cut short by a killer. after each crime, the murderer seemed to vanish into the campus crowd, until investigators uncovered a crucial clue and exposed the evil among them. here is "evil in a college town." college is a time like no other, a time to be independent, explore passions, meet new people. and each semester marks a fresh start, when students feel invincible, never imagining that a carefree weekend could be their last. that's how it was for two promising young women in this small midwestern city along the majestic wabash

river, two strangers whose lives would one day intersect in the most dreadful way imaginable. it was 1997, a week into the fall semester at indiana's vincennes university. 19-year-old brook baker was full of excitement for her sophomore year. you couldn't stop her. it was contagious. everything was like, ok. well, let's go. let's do this. andrea canning (voiceover): shawna cooper was brook's close friend and admired her enthusiasm. andrea canning: was she thriving on campus? did she just love being at college? she did. it was like she had to do this so she could go out in the world and do big things. andrea canning (voiceover): they'd both grown up in the small city of vincennes, right across the river from neighboring illinois. and they both had family in town. but brook lived on her own in a tiny rental house near campus. rebecca moen: it was right across from the journalism lab, from the humanities building, where she was

taking most of her classes. andrea canning (voiceover): rebecca moen was a professor brook had grown close to. rebecca moen: she'd stop in at my office, and we'd sit and talk. and she would mostly tell me things that were going on in her life or somebody that she was dating. sometimes she would tell me story ideas that she had. andrea canning (voiceover): brook was always looking for stories because she was an editor at the campus newspaper, "the trailblazer." she had big dreams of moving to new york someday to work for "rolling stone magazine." what made brook stand out? i guess her ambition, especially in journalism. andrea canning (voiceover): michael moen was brook's journalism advisor and married to rebecca. he was always impressed with brook's drive. i think she wanted to make a difference in the world. andrea canning (voiceover): brook wanted to make the most out of her life and filled it with fun and adventure at every turn. but on sunday, september 7, that all came to an end in a violent attack. at 9:34 pm, a 911 call came in from brook's address.

detective greg winkler with the indiana state police responded to the scene. greg winkler: brook's brother, braun, had found her in her bedroom, walked into the bedroom, saw brook laying there, thought she was asleep, and kind of walked away a minute, and then came back in and noticed something wasn't right. what did the brother tell you he saw when he-- when he got to her place? he said he unlocked the door with his key to go in. and then he had heard the water running, then thought she was in the bathroom, taking a bath or shower. finally stepped in there and saw the water running and turned the water off and then went to the bedroom and found brook. andrea canning (voiceover): her nude, lifeless body was lying on the bed. she had been stabbed to death. andrea canning (voiceover): there were also signs she'd been sexually assaulted, but the coroner would need to do a rape kit to be sure. the girl with the big dreams and ambitions was suddenly gone. when her parents got the news, they were devastated. we lost our daughter.

we will never be able to have her back. and this is something that we will have to live the rest of our lives trying to deal with. andrea canning (voiceover): word spread quickly across campus about brook's death. the journalism lab, like, was just shock and numbness in the days immediately afterward. the girl who wrote the stories was now the story-- yeah. andrea canning: --in the worst way. - yes. - yeah. yes. andrea canning (voiceover): the moens had lost a beloved student they cared for deeply. their 13-year-old daughter, katherine, took the news especially hard. i think she saw brook as the big sister that she didn't have, you know? and she really admired brook. andrea canning (voiceover): shawna got the news in her dorm. shawna cooper: i just kind of fell on the floor, like, crying, like, in shock. this is a safe place. this is a small campus. mm-hmm. things like that don't happen here. no.

no. andrea canning (voiceover): a killer was on the loose, and the vincennes community was on edge. detectives needed answers fast and hoped reviewing what brook did and who she saw on her last day would provide them. they never imagined they'd lead to so many dark and twisted turns. [tense music] ♪♪ stay ahead of your child's moderate-to-severe eczema. and they can show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your child's skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your child's eczema specialist about dupixent. alright, we got your home and auto bundled ask your child's eczema and you saved hundreds. oh, that's nice, with the economy and all. what's the economy? [chuckling] where do we start?

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type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. 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. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. living with type 2 diabetes? ask about the power of 3 with ozempic®. andrea canning (voiceover): the vincennes university community was in a state of shock. one of their own, 19-year-old brook baker,

had been killed in her off-campus house, raped and then stabbed multiple times. stab wound to the breast that went through the breast, and there was 11 stab wounds to the back. that's a lot. it was a lot of stab wounds. did that suggest-- did that tell you anything? it could mean a lot of things. i mean, certainly, it could mean that somebody was angry with that person. andrea canning (voiceover): the house was cluttered, so it was difficult for detectives to tell if anything was out of place. were there any signs of forced entry? no, there were no signs of forced entry. no. andrea canning (voiceover): but the bathtub was filled with wet towels, which was strange. detectives also found the kitchen sink full of water and other things. a dishwashing soap bottle in the water, and there were knives in the water, pair of scissors. andrea canning (voiceover): possible murder weapons were sent off for dna testing, along with swabs from brook's body. police canvassed the neighborhood, but found no witnesses.

news about the murder traveled fast, and reporters descended on vincennes. dana winklepleck, an anchor with nbc affiliate wtwo in terre haute, indiana, was one of the first to arrive. dana winklepleck: i'd only been a reporter at that time for two years. and so that was the first murder i'd ever covered in vincennes. so it was surprising to me that it had happened. andrea canning (voiceover): almost immediately, leads started to pour in. and chief deputy prosecuting attorney hal johnston joined the detectives to help sort through them all. the difficulty is you can't glean at that point what's valid and what's invalid. you have to just start taking interviews from people. andrea canning (voiceover): to organize the information that was coming in, investigators began constructing a timeline of brook's last day. but even as they put it together, they realized their task wouldn't be quick or easy. i mean, just a lot of interviews and a lot of people to talk to. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives learned that saturday, september 6, brook's social calendar was jam-packed with multiple hangouts

and off-campus parties. at 3:00 pm, she'd met with someone she'd just befriended that semester. his name was steve hoffman. the two hung out for a few hours, then walked to a subway shop to grab a sandwich before going their separate ways. at 7:00 that night, another friend, biff elliott, from the journalism program, came by brook's house to walk her to a concert. he worked on "the trailblazer" with us. they were going to cover that for the paper. andrea canning (voiceover): by 9:00, the concert was over, and brook's work for the night was done. biff dropped her off at a party on second street, not far from her house. it would amaze me how she would try to be friends with everybody. she didn't have, like, a clique or a type. she just had a very contagious personality. you just wanted to be around her. andrea canning (voiceover): at the party, brook met up with a guy she knew named tommy williams. he was one of several guys she liked at the time. how was the dating scene for brook at college? was she-- i don't think she was attached, but she had a lot of friends. andrea canning (voiceover): between 10:00 and 10:30,

brook and tommy went to another party thrown by university soccer players. so she must have really liked interacting with people. she loved people. andrea canning (voiceover): at 12:30 am, they left the soccer party and headed toward brook's house. close to 1:00 am, they were spotted by a campus police officer passing the student union. it was the last time brook was seen alive. detectives now had a list of several young men brook had interacted with that saturday afternoon and evening, people they needed to interview. yet the first person they decided to look at closely wasn't someone brook had been with, but someone who'd been watching her, someone being whispered about on campus. what kind of rumors were going around? well, about the campus police officer. andrea canning (voiceover): the same campus police officer who saw brook with tommy that night was also brook's landlord, someone brook had complained about. she told me that he creeped her out.

he would shine a flashlight in her window at night. he would be there in her house, saying he had the right to be there. that would be so scary. how freaked out was she by that? she never gave off any kind of like "i'm scared of--" she never gave off that vibe for anything. andrea canning (voiceover): the landlord's name was mike nardine. and brook had also complained about him to her professors. she said one time she woke up from a nap that she had taken. he was sitting at the edge of her bed. and this is a campus police officer. police officer, mm-hmm. yes. did she mention if he had ever made a pass at her or wanted a relationship with her? i think she told me that he did suggest exchanging sex for rent. did she go and report it? i don't think she did. what are you thinking about this landlord when you're hearing this kind of information? obviously, he becomes somebody that we want to, you know, look at very seriously

and collect the dna. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives asked officer nardine to come down to the station and answer questions several times. detective bob dunham was with the vincennes police department. andrea canning: was he cooperative? if i had to try to describe what his manner was, he was cooperative, but very unhappy. he willingly gave you his dna? yes. he willingly took the polygraphs. did he pass or fail? they were considered inconclusive. andrea canning (voiceover): mike nardine looked suspicious, but he repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. and investigators had no evidence connecting him to brook's murder. however, they did have one ace up their sleeve. the results from brook's rape kit were in, and detectives believed that would be the key to identifying her killer. could it be the landlord? life has twists and curls.

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let me set the record straight.

are people born wicked? or do they have wickedness thrust upon them? oh! -ah! [ laughter ] no need to respond. that was rhetorical. hm, hmm. andrea canning (voiceover): it was an uneasy autumn in vincennes, indiana. weeks had passed since the murder of university student brook baker with no arrests. dana winklepleck: over and over again, the police chief would say, we're not giving out much information on this case because we don't want to hurt the case. andrea canning (voiceover): brook's understand the lack of progress or why they weren't hearing from police. none of the detectives really want to tell us anything. they don't even call us unless we demand to talk to them.

and i think they forgot we're her parents. andrea canning (voiceover): students looked over their shoulders at night. that young person's feeling of invincibility had all but disappeared. it was present in your mind all the time. andrea canning (voiceover): despite their silence, the case was all-consuming for detectives behind the scenes. i can say that we put in more miles on this case than any other case that i was ever involved. andrea canning (voiceover): so when those results from brook's rape kit came in, it was a huge break in the case. male dna was found in brook's body, and detectives believed it belonged to her killer. it was labeled 137f. so your suspect became 137f. we kind of used that off shorthand for the suspect. andrea canning (voiceover): they sent a dna sample from brook's landlord, mike nardine, to compare to 137f, but when they got the results, the samples did not match. so, basically, other than rumor and hearsay,

i don't have a case against him whatsoever. he was very upset that he was not being cleared. and he felt he should be. all of this wasn't enough to clear him. it was really hard to clear anybody unless there was just concrete evidence to show that they were somewhere else at the time we felt this happened. like a rock-solid alibi. yes. andrea canning (voiceover): the landlord didn't have one and remained under a cloud of suspicion across campus. but for detectives, it was time to look elsewhere. so they went back to their list of male students brook interacted with the day she was killed. maybe one of them had a motive for murder. at 3:00 pm that saturday, detectives knew brook had spent a few hours with her friend steve and gone to the subway, seen here. now, they needed to know more about their time together. they interviewed the vincennes student many times over many hours about his relationship with brook. how did he seem? he was cooperative and cooperated throughout the whole investigation. andrea canning (voiceover): steve admitted to detectives that he and brook occasionally had a friends with benefits

type relationship, but alluded to wanting something more serious. he was certainly, you know, to me, a good suspect in the case, just because of his relationship with brook. andrea canning (voiceover): after subway, steve told investigators the two said goodbye. but he also said that wasn't the last time he saw brook that night. while she was at the house on second street, steve drives by and sees her on the porch with this other young man. andrea canning: could that have made him angry when he saw her with another guy? definitely. did you ask for a dna sample from steve as well? yes, i did. andrea canning (voiceover): but steve's sample didn't match 137f. do you eliminate him at that point? i did not eliminate him at that point. and i don't think any of the investigators eliminated anybody at that point. andrea canning (voiceover): at 7:00 pm, brook had met up with biff, and the two of them went to cover the concert at the softball field for the paper. did they have any type of relationship aside from being friends and newspaper colleagues?

they had no relationship other than friends, is my understanding. but then again, you always wonder, well, did biff want a different kind of relationship? so you have to look into that. andrea canning (voiceover): and detectives did, but found nothing suspicious about biff's feelings for brook or his activities that night. did you ask for a dna sample from biff? yes, i did. andrea canning: was he a match? no, he did not match 137f. andrea canning (voiceover): then, around 9:00, brook met up with tommy, the guy from the party on second street. tommy was a vincennes university alum who was visiting friends that weekend. he admitted to spending most of the night with brook and told detectives they had sex at her house before he left. he said he was with brook until about 1:30 and then left. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives tried to confirm what tommy did next, but couldn't find anyone who saw him until 3:00 am, walking on campus, and then again at 5:00 am, sleeping on a friend's couch. that left several hours when no one could account for tommy's whereabouts. but investigators believed he was telling the truth.

to be certain, though they asked for a dna sample. was his-- his dna a match? his dna was not a match. andrea canning (voiceover): nor were the dna samples of any of the other males brook saw saturday night or any of the guys in her circle of friends. as time went on without an arrest, public frustration grew. and it got to the point where the family was saying that we needed to get the fbi in here and get them involved because the vincennes state police department did not know what they were doing. andrea canning (voiceover): brook's family went to the media again, this time to share a lead they felt was being overlooked. it involved something she had been working on for the campus newspaper, a story about an alleged rape at an off-campus fraternity. news anchor dana winklepleck. brook's mom at that time was convinced that someone in that fraternity had killed her daughter. she has an email from this fraternity that says, write the story, you will die. andrea canning (voiceover): brook had shown the email

to professor moen, too. it was basically, you don't know what you're getting into here. leave us alone. mind your own business. did that deter her? no. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives say they took the matter seriously and investigated the fraternity allegations. i obtained some emails that were sent from a couple of the fraternity members to brook and actually interviewed them and collected their dna. andrea canning (voiceover): once again, none of the samples matched suspect 137f, and the prosecuting attorney determined there wasn't a case for the alleged rape involving the fraternity either. a year passed, then nearly two. the investigation was losing steam. i think people definitely had reached a point where they thought, this won't be solved. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives had conducted more than 400 interviews, collected 73 dna samples, and had a database of 572 people involved in the case, and nothing led to suspect 137f.

that was the most frustrating part of the whole case because we thought we had a really good suspect or had some good information, and we got the dna and it didn't match. andrea canning (voiceover): then, one july morning in 1999, almost two years after brooks murder, investigators found themselves in another bloody apartment belonging to another young female student. they were staring at a bathtub full of water and couch cushions. i knew deep down in my heart that we had the same guy did the same thing again. [dramatic music] when you live with diabetes, progress is... having your coffee like you like it without an audience. ♪♪ [silence] the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time so everyone else doesn't have to, and over time

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richard lui with the news update. officials directly involved in

the 2021 afghanistan with drop. and whether they could be court- martialed. the trump transition team has yet to respond. u.s.'s confirmed its first case of a more aggressive form of capital m-pox. the u.s. says the sixth country outside of africa to confirm the case of this strain. the individual was in california and it recently traveled from east africa. for now, back to "dateline". and frustrated justice had not yet been served. but police had uncovered key evidence, dna they believed belonged to brook's killer. detectives searched methodically for a match among the men in her life, but came up empty. now, evidence from another vicious crime was about to give them the break they needed. returning to "evil in a college town." andrea canning (voiceover): it was monday, just after the july 4th holiday weekend. a call came in to the vincennes police department

about a problem at this apartment building on second street. bob dunham: they advised that there was a person missing and that it looked as if there had been some type of altercation in the apartment. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives bob dunham and greg winkler responded to the scene. andrea canning: what did you see inside that apartment? everything was just a total mess. you could tell some type of fight had taken place. right away, you could see blood on the walls. andrea canning (voiceover): a broken lamp, a ripped couch with a cushion missing. the living room was in complete disarray. in the bedroom, another horrific scene. walls covered with more blood, the closet ransacked. it seemed to me like the struggle went around the apartment. any other clues in the apartment? there was cash in the open out. purse was there, other things they could have taken in a robbery. andrea canning (voiceover): but no one was home, just a few items found in a purse that gave detectives a name-- erika norman, a 21-year-old sophomore

at vincennes university from new market, indiana. bob dunham: so do i have a missing person that's been battered? do i have a person that battered somebody else and ran? i mean, there was a lot of questions initially, but no doubt in my mind a serious crime had taken place. did you see any signs of forced entry? no. did that suggest anything to you? pretty well starts the investigation. the victim knows the assailant. or it could be somebody that has a key. andrea canning (voiceover): erika had a roommate, but he had gone to colorado for the weekend. so detectives started talking to the neighbors who told them about some goings on two nights earlier. did anyone hear anything, see anything? there were a few tenants who did hear some banging and noise, you know, i think someone said around 4:00 am in the morning. they just wrote it off as, well, that's just normal sounds that they hear all the time. people are out partying. it's college. andrea canning (voiceover): around

that same time, a couple who lived across the street told investigators they heard something more ominous. greg winkler: she did say that her and i believe her husband were on the porch, and they heard a scream about 4:00 am. and that's not out of the norm for that type of neighborhood either. that could have been erika. it could have been erika, yes. we can't prove that. we don't have a victim. andrea canning (voiceover): no one saw erika during that commotion, but one tenant told detectives he heard something strange coming from her apartment later that sunday, something that got the detectives' attention. at around 4:00 pm, the tenant said the sound of loud running water from behind erika's door was very noticeable. he had some concerns, but left and didn't go in. andrea canning (voiceover): the next morning, when the tenant passed by erika's apartment again, the water was still running. the door was unlocked, so he went in. water was running in the bathroom sink and tub. he shut it off. that's when he saw blood on the walls and immediately called the building's owner who made that call to the police.

what did you see in the bathroom? there was blood on the vanity and the sink area and in the bathtub, one of the couch cushions, also one of those tote lids and a duffel bag. andrea canning (voiceover): it was the brook baker crime scene all over again-- that same running water with items immersed in it in an attempt, it appeared, to wash away evidence. detectives called knox county chief deputy attorney hal johnston down to erika's apartment. i think deep down, we all agreed this has got to be the same guy. we don't know. but those-- those very strong correlations there, both of the victims were young college students. they were white females. they lived off campus. the couch cushion in the tub indicated to me something had happened on that couch that the perpetrator wanted to clean up. there's been some type of an assault here. and they're desperate enough to have moved the body. andrea canning (voiceover): erika's family lived over 100 miles away and got a call from investigators

that no one wants to get. erika's mother, elaine. andrea canning: what did they say? that she was missing. and i was like, how could she be missing? i couldn't understand it. you know, what are you talking about? andrea canning (voiceover): erika's sister, ronda, made the long, agonizing trip to vincennes with her parents. ronda norman: and it seemed like an impossible feat that she's missing. and now we have to find her. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives didn't share their theory about a connection to brook baker's murder-- not yet. instead, they focused on tracking down those who knew erika or saw her over the weekend. we were helping them with the phone numbers to-- of her friends. and they were calling and checking to see if they knew where she was. andrea canning (voiceover): elaine had spoken with her daughter just a few days before. she said erika seemed happy, full of plans for the holiday weekend. her family says she was a cheerful person, always had been. she was always teasing me. and she would make fun of me sometimes,

but she just liked to have fun. she just had a really good sense of humor. andrea canning (voiceover): a good sense of humor and a wide range of interests. the campus radio station was one. erika norman (on radio): this is erika norman on the wrok, w-r-o-k. she enjoyed it. she liked being on the radio. and her professor thought she was doing a really good job. andrea canning (voiceover): but her true love, said best friend iliana goren, was helping others. we were going to go to honduras. and she was going to go to college and major in spanish so that she could perfect her-- her language. and i would go to into the medical field. and we would both just make a team and work helping other people. andrea canning (voiceover): now alarm bells were going off as iliana talked to erika's parents. could you feel the concern? they were very concerned. andrea canning (voiceover): iliana was, too. she knew that erika was a kind and trusting person, sometimes too trusting, and had warned her several times how

that could lead to trouble. she just thought everybody was good people. everybody was good to her. she didn't see anything bad on anybody. andrea canning (voiceover): she told erika's parents that she and erika were supposed to hang out that afternoon, but never heard from her. detectives hoped other friends and coworkers had. we had to find out what she did on her last day to determine where she was and what happened to her. andrea canning (voiceover): they learned no one had seen or heard from her since saturday night. sometime after 5:30 pm, erika left her apartment and drove to work, which was less than a 10-minute drive. at 6:00 pm, she started her dinner shift as a server at a local pub. it was a typical busy saturday night, lasting a bit more than four hours. at 10:00 pm, erika finished her shift and clocked out. and after she left work, she went out to a local bar and was there with some friends and met some other friends that showed up.

andrea canning (voiceover): by 3:00 am, the group finally called it a night. but as they were leaving-- erika invited everyone to come over and watch a movie or come to her house. andrea canning (voiceover): only one person took her up on the offer, a guy named brian jones. they were last seen driving away in his car. we didn't know anything about brian jones. he was a fresh new name that we didn't have. andrea canning (voiceover): but now that they had it, the race was on to find him. [dramatic music] if you're living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or active psoriatic arthritis, symptoms can sometimes hold you back. but now there's skyrizi, so you can be all in with clearer skin. ♪ things are getting clearer ♪ ♪ yeah, i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ with skyrizi, you can show up with 90% clearer skin. and if you have psoriatic arthritis, skyrizi can help you move with less joint pain, stiffness,swelling, and fatigue.

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by the same predator who'd killed brook baker nearly two years before. they knew she was last seen leaving a bar with a guy named brian jones. had erika ever mentioned brian jones to you? no. that he was a friend or someone she hung out with in a group? no, we just found out from her friends that he worked at a restaurant that she worked at when she first got down there. but then she went on and got another job. this is someone that she seemed to feel comfortable-- yes. --bringing him back to watch a movie. uh-huh. yes. andrea canning (voiceover): hours after erika was reported missing, detectives tracked brian down at the factory where he worked, and he agreed to come in for questioning. the detectives started the interview slowly, learning a bit about his background. brian jones was from the evansville area. he went to school down there, ended up coming

to vincennes university. he lived within two blocks of the university still also. andrea canning (voiceover): jones wasn't a student, but he did hang out with the campus crowd. he admitted to detectives that he knew erika and confirmed that he saw her at the bar that night. what are you thinking as you're interviewing him? he was nervous, but he was still calm enough and able to speak and gave us a story. and what was his story? that he went back to erika's apartment and they were going to watch a movie. they put the movie in and stayed-- stayed long enough where she fell asleep, i think, on the couch. and he-- he kind of woke her up and said, i'm going to go. he was very, very strong in saying he covered her up with a blanket, and he left. and she was fine. andrea canning (voiceover): then he said something the detectives weren't expecting. bob dunham: he brought the fact that one of his old roommates dated brook baker.

andrea canning (voiceover): brook baker. it was a sign detectives were on the right track about erika's and brook's cases being related. so you've got this connection now-- yes. andrea canning: --between the roommate and brook. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives already knew brian's roommate from their earlier investigation. he had dated brook and provided a dna sample, which didn't match 137f. they had spoken to him enough to know brook had visited his home many times and met his roommates, which meant brian jones knew brook, too. so they asked him point blank, had he ever had sex with brook baker? bob dunham: he even said that i never dated her. i never had sex with her at any time. and after those statements, he was definitely somebody we were going to get dna from. did he willingly give you that dna? yes. yes. andrea canning (voiceover): brian jones not only provided blood and hair samples, he handed over the clothes and shoes he wore that saturday and allowed investigators to search his car and house. his willingness to cooperate might have made jones appear

less suspicious, but something on one of his shoes got the detective's attention. greg winkler: bob notices a red stain on-- i mean, a very small spot on the shoes. so bob's like-- nudged me, like, you see that? and i'm like, yeah, i see it. what do you do when you see something like that? we just played it-- played it cool. andrea canning (voiceover): they let jones go and got to work. but before they could test the spot on the shoe, detectives needed a dna profile for erika. since she was still missing, they reconstructed her profile using samples taken from her parents. the lab tested the spot on jones's shoe to see if it was erika's blood. a week later, the results came back showing that it was. and there was more-- brian jones's dna results were also in, and what they revealed was a bombshell. but it wasn't about the investigation into erika norman's disappearance. lab analyst calls me and tells me that the dna matches, saying it matches 137f.

wow. that just gave me chills. yeah. andrea canning (voiceover): 137f, the unknown suspect in the brook baker murder. i was like, oh, my. so the 137f that has been mr. unknown for all this time is-- is brian jones. andrea canning: --brian jones. andrea canning (voiceover): jones was immediately put under surveillance until the prosecutor's office could get a warrant for his arrest. two days later, the 22-year-old was arrested as he arrived to court in another county for a traffic violation. what was his reaction? he just looked at me, and he kind of rolled his eyes. i don't think he said anything. andrea canning (voiceover): law enforcement held a press conference to announce the news. they say, we've arrested someone in brook baker's murder, and his name is brian jones. brian jones? who the heck is brian jones? and not only is he being arrested for brook baker's murder, but he's also suspected now in a missing

case for another vu student. we were all just shocked. did brook ever mention him to you? mm-mm. if she did, i didn't put two and two together. andrea canning (voiceover): the campus was buzzing about jones, who many people knew. brook's professor, michael moen, and his wife, rebecca, heard what students were saying, that jones was an unlikely suspect for murder. people seemed to like him. you know, he had friends. he wasn't a loner or anything like that. he was a quiet guy, clean-cut. i mean, he's not the kind of person you would meet at a party and think, oh, that guy's kind of weird. i want to avoid him. hiding in plain sight. exactly, yeah. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives believed they'd finally caught brook's killer. but what did this mean for erika's case? that spot of blood on jones's shoe belonged to erika and tied him to the crime scene. bob dunham: we've got him in his first factual lie that she was just fine when he left. i see. he had to be there when blood was spilled. everything is really starting

to just fall into place. andrea canning (voiceover): but it still wasn't enough. i don't have a body. i don't have a pathology report. i don't have a cause of death. i don't have a manner of death. andrea canning (voiceover): erika's case was stuck in a frustrating holding pattern, until detectives got a call from illinois that would lead them to a remote cornfield. [suspenseful music] dupixent can help people with asthma breathe better in as little as 2 weeks. so this is better. even this. dupixent is an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines including steroids, without talking to your doctor. ask your specialist about dupixent. long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger. air fresheners add a scent.

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andrea canning (voiceover): 15 days

after erika norman disappeared, detectives received a call that confirmed their worst fears. erika's badly decomposed body had been found across the river in illinois. her student id and driver's license were nearby. andrea canning: where was erika's body found in relation to here, where she was living and where this crime happened? her body was found in a field, corn field, by farm hands across the river, almost straight across this-- this direction. andrea canning (voiceover): it was a remote location, but not far from erika's apartment, just five blocks to a bridge over the wabash river and straight into illinois and the cornfield, about a 10-minute drive in total. news of the discovery was overwhelming for the family. when all that sinks in-- erika is not coming home-- how do you-- how do you process that? it's hard. right, at first, i was ready to go join her. i thought, i can't go on like this.

how can i live like this? were you able to get a cause of death? no. i have a body, but it's horrifically decomposed. the cause of death is unknown, but the manner of death is homicide. andrea canning (voiceover): in the weeks that followed, search warrants for brian jones's car and home uncovered more evidence, evidence that further proved a connection between jones and erika's murder. so we found blood in the shower that belonged to erika on the shower wall. in his shower? yes. so i'm sure he washed off either with his clothes on or washed himself off. but then also in the trunk of his car, on the back part of the trunk seal, the technicians found blood. that's how he transported her body to the field. in the trunk. andrea canning (voiceover): the prosecution finally had everything it needed and charged brian jones with erika's murder. but it was brook baker's case that would go before jurors a year later, and public interest was high. when the trial got underway--

woman: do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony-- andrea canning (voiceover): --there was gavel-to-gavel news coverage. i think the community wanted to make sure that if brian jones did it, brian jones was convicted. andrea canning (voiceover): brook's family wanted the same and was in court every day. it's my personal opinion that we have plenty of evidence, good evidence, that will convict him. andrea canning (voiceover): the prosecution was up first, and hal johnston's message to the jury was simple. the very first words out of my mouth were-- "he raped her, he murdered her, and he lied about it." andrea canning (voiceover): the prosecution explained to the jury how sample 137f was the only male dna recovered from brook's rape kit, and it was a perfect match to brian jones. so was the dna sample found on brook's bed and under brook's fingernails. you get the idea that she's clawed him as he has murdered her. also, there is someone who takes the stand who knew brian and saw a scratch on his face after that had happened.

andrea canning (voiceover): and remember the items found in brook's kitchen sink? they were tested, too. we found her dna on the knife. so i had the murder weapon. it was a very, very small spot. andrea canning (voiceover): and hal johnston made sure to tell the jury how brian jones had lied during his police interview. he looked right at detective dunham and said, "i never had sex with her," which we now know is a lie based on the science of dna. andrea canning (voiceover): the defense was up next, and attorney scott danks had a very different story for the jury. scott danks: i told the jurors in my opening statement there was very little evidence against brian jones, but also, there were several other individuals that had motive. they had the opportunity. andrea canning (voiceover): danks argued all that could be proved was that brian jones had sex with brook baker sometime close to the day she was killed and that the sex was consensual. but brian jones denied in his police interview. he denied having sex with her. he did. so he lied.

he did, because they had had this massive manhunt for over two years. and he was afraid. so he lied to protect himself. he lied so that suspicion wouldn't be incorrectly cast upon him. andrea canning (voiceover): the defense had no evidence or witnesses to support its claim, and jones didn't testify. instead, danks focused on shifting suspicion off of jones and on to the men in brook's life. dana winklepleck: the strategy of the defense at the trial was kind of to put brook baker on trial. she was a young woman. it's not uncommon at 19 maybe to sow a little wild oats. the fact that she knew lots of people, they just made it seem like there could have been a bunch of different people who had harmed her, and not be brian jones. andrea canning (voiceover): but the jury didn't buy it. after just five hours of deliberations, they reached a verdict-- guilty on all counts. it was a great feeling. i think all of us felt a great relief when

we heard that word, "guilty." andrea canning (voiceover): especially since the jury didn't know and wasn't allowed to hear the most explosive information about brian jones, that before the brook baker murder trial started, he pled guilty to murdering erika norman and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. but this jury could hear it during the sentencing phase. and once they did, they gave jones the maximum sentence-- life in prison without the possibility of parole. it was the outcome brook's parents had wanted for so long. then we're satisfied. we know we have the right person. and maybe he won't be able to harm anyone anymore. you look at this. you can't help but think that erika, as tragic as her story was, solved brook's murder. without a doubt, her death is what stopped him. that's what's haunted me ever since. erika had to die for him to be caught.

but to also potentially prevent a lot of other girls. do you believe he would have struck again? yes. i think so. yes. andrea canning (voiceover): brian jones made no statement at his sentencing hearings. but six years after erika's murder, he sent this letter to her family. andrea canning: he says, "i've searched and searched for the right words to convey to you about how bad and terrible i feel for taking such a wonderful person away from this present world." i mean, why? that doesn't help anything. and why didn't he think of that before? andrea canning (voiceover): justice was finally served, but it was of little solace to those who loved erika and brook. it didn't change anything. it didn't bring her back. it didn't change anything for anybody. she clearly had such a big impact on your life. she did. andrea canning (voiceover): erika's death had a paralyzing effect on her friend, iliana. i feel like for so many years, i've just shut it down. i didn't want to talk about it.

in college, i didn't have friends. i stayed to myself. i went to my room looking behind my shoulder to see if somebody was following me. andrea canning (voiceover): time passed, and iliana married, had daughters of her own, but she still thinks about her friend often. do you feel like erika is watching over you? yes, every day. i miss her every day. it's been so many years, and i miss my friend every day. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. [theme music]