keith morrison: and then there was the day planner, when the sweet mundane details of paige's life and those of her children were made real once more. the family nights, soccer games, the dance recitals and birthday parties and library visits. they were all there. the precious chaotic rhythms of a family that once was. proof that there was a time when all was as it should be. proof also that time is gone forever. on a lonely road in texas. we figured that she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here.

craig melvin: tough questions for her boyfriend. where was i the night before? what had i been doing? when had i last seen her? i really thought he could be our killer. craig melvin: but while police tried to prove it, another attack. he has got me by the throat, and he's shaking me, and he's yelling at me, telling me not to say a word. you're a prisoner in this apartment now. yes. jeff capps: her body had kind of been propped up onto the bed. even law enforcement, they felt, what do we have on our hands here? craig melvin: there's growing danger because police are looking in the wrong place. i lived to tell, and nobody believed me. this monster is walking free while they're wasting their time on me. craig melvin: can the killer be caught before he kills again? it makes you realize how fragile your life is and that anybody can take it. [music playing]

welcome to "dateline." a killer was on the loose in a texas college town, leaving students and their parents terrified. with the shocking discovery of jamie hart's body, investigators were desperately trying to piece together clues. was the young woman connected to her killer? or did police have an active predator on their hands? here's andrea canning with "the face of evil." looking looking back now, this woman almost didn't make it. i said, if you keep doing this, you're going to kill me. and he just said, do you think i actually care about that? is that when you feel like you're looking in the face of evil? i knew then, completely in that moment, that he intended on killing me. little did she know that in this college town, she wasn't the only one. he said that he would go to jail for murder before he'd ever go to jail for rape. what is going through your mind? i wish i had told all the people that i loved that i loved them. andrea canning: but was their private horror connected to a very public mystery?

everyone's saying, what is going on in this community? it just had people asking, what's gonna happen next? andrea canning: more women connected by tragedy and by questions. could a killer have been stopped sooner? i was so angry that two people had to die in order for someone to believe me. andrea canning: the story begins in a small texas town. but it's not just any town. this is college station, home to texas a&m, and, in 1999, home to 21-year-old student jamie hart. i was immediately struck with her beauty. andrea canning: chuck crews was her boyfriend at the time. he says jamie was the light of his life. he remembers when he first laid eyes on her. i could barely speak when i saw her, she was so pretty. it was like when the color came on in "the wizard of oz." i had been living in a dark world, and she showed me a world full of color.

andrea canning: and she was a loyal friend, funny, outspoken. she would tell you exactly what was on her mind at all times. andrea canning: it was early one morning in may. jamie's roommates couldn't find her. they called chuck. i got a call asking me if i knew where she was. and i said, no. she didn't come over here last night. i don't know where she is. i hadn't talked to her the night before. and i went to work. andrea canning: that same morning, detective kenny elliott of the brazos county sheriff's office was summoned to the scene of a disturbing discovery. there was a young female, appeared to be in her early 20s. she was nude. she had extensive road rash on her entire body. and she was obviously deceased. andrea canning: a jogger spotted the victim in a ditch 9 feet from the side of the road. when i arrived, there was probably half a dozen officers here. and they had taped off the area, blocked traffic. at that point, we started conducting a search of the area.

we figured that she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. andrea canning: less than a mile away, deputies discovered what was presumed to be the woman's clothing strewn across the entrance to an oil field. another 9 miles from there, an abandoned vehicle, its engine still running. there were blood on the car, and that raised suspicion. we sent a team over there to process the car. andrea canning: and inside the car, a driver's license that belonged to jamie hart. when detectives showed up at chuck's workplace that afternoon, he says his heart sank. when they told me that she had been found dead, it felt like i'd been hit by a truck. wow. so your sense of dread was coming true. yep. realized, fully realized. did fear spread throughout the campus? oh yes. i mean, it was front-page news.

kristin lancaster was a 19-year-old freshman. my brother actually worked with jamie at the time. and i'll never forget him coming home devastated. a killer in a college town is terrifying. very much so, yes. this is something that happens in chicago. it's something that happens in houston. it's not something that happens in bryan-college station in aggieland andrea canning: kelly brown is the editor of "the eagle," the local newspaper. i think at the time, people were hoping this is a drifter that just kept on going because the location of her body. andrea canning: sheriff's deputies canvassed the crime scene, searched jamie's car, and looked for eyewitnesses. kenny elliott: talked to several hundred people, and no one's seen anything. andrea canning: turns out there were no fingerprints inside the car. but during an autopsy, the medical examiner did recover dna from jamie's body, dna which likely came from her rapist and killer. did you put the dna into a database? we put it in codis. any hits? none

andrea canning: no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, no dna matches. the investigation wasn't off to a good start. that's when we started contacting people at her place of employment, friends, roommates. did she have any enemies? everybody seemed to love her. andrea canning: detective elliott began to retrace jamie's steps on the night of the murder. jamie was taking time off from her studies at texas a&m and was working at a pizza parlor. her shift had ended around midnight. we contacted everybody that she'd delivered pizzas to, and nothing out of the ordinary. andrea canning: after work, she'd headed over to a friend's house. kenny elliott: he said that they were there watching movies. and she left his house around 4:30 in the morning. and what time did you think that she was killed? kenny elliott: we got the call, i think, at 7:15 am. so between 4:30 am and 7:00. andrea canning: the male friend, a college student, was the last known person to see jamie alive. the detective paid him a visit.

kenny elliott: he was upset, obviously. they were friends and had been for some time. andrea canning: the friend's grief seemed genuine, but something was peculiar. when investigators asked for a dna sample-- he said no. no? of course, we wanted to know why. was he the killer, or was he not? andrea canning: the detective was determined to answer that question. so he put the young man under surveillance, followed him to a local restaurant. and are you hidden somewhere in the restaurant? i'm kind of back in a corner, yeah. andrea canning: he watched the student have a few drinks. and when he left, the detective snagged the dirty beer mugs and sent them out for dna testing. the results would take weeks, leaving a town full of young people on edge. dads and moms were telling their college-age kids, be alert everywhere you go. go with people when you go out. don't be alone. and that's a frightening order to give anybody. andrea canning: frightening, but sound advice

because in this case, connecting the dots wouldn't be so easy. detectives have a second possible suspect in their sights. jamie's boyfriend is invited to sit down for polygraph tests. coming up-- kenny elliott: failed the tests that's a bad sign for you, right? bad sign for him. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. [music playing] how are folks 60 and older having fun these days? family cookouts! ♪♪ playing games! ♪♪ dancing in the par... (high pitched sound) (high pitched sound) (high pitched sound) >> when you've shown dogs at

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andrea canning: 21-year-old jamie hart had been sexually assaulted and left to die on the side of a busy roadway. i could barely function. all i could think about was loss, that she's gone from my life forever. andrea canning: jamie's boyfriend, chuck crews, then 24, says right after the murder, he took off to baytown, texas jamie's hometown. about the only thing that i remember her father asking me is when are you coming down? so i got some stuff together and drove down as soon as i could. and i spent most of the next week with them, mourning with the family, and then acting as a pallbearer for her funeral. andrea canning: back in college station, detective kenny elliott was working the case. anytime you have a killer out on the run, it's frustrating. you want to catch the person responsible.

andrea canning: one possible suspect, that male friend jamie visited the night of her murder. he'd refused to give police a dna sample for testing. that's kind of odd if he had nothing to hide. a lot of people will not give up dna. too much tv. andrea canning: but the detective had snagged a sample from a beer mug. and when the dna finally came back, he was not a match. you felt confident that you could rule him out based on the dna not matching. yes. andrea canning: but even before the dna test cleared jamie's friend, the detective was already looking for other suspects. and his attention quickly landed on someone very close to the victim, her boyfriend. the questions that they asked focused on where was i the night before? what had i been doing? looking at you as a possible suspect? it didn't really occur to me that that was what they were doing. i just thought they were asking for information.

andrea canning: chuck told the detective that before jamie was killed, he hadn't seen her for two days. on the night of the murder, he said he was at home. i was playing computer games like a good nerd. did you have anyone there to corroborate your alibi? i think my roommates were there, but they were both asleep. i had nobody right there, sitting there with me. andrea canning: so the boyfriend's alibi wasn't solid. and as they spoke, the detective was looking carefully for signs he might be hiding something. he was cooperative, apprehensive. he said everything was fine in their relationship. andrea canning: the detective asked chuck for dna, and he said yes. and when they asked him for a polygraph, he agreed to that, too. but here's the thing with that last part, the polygraph-- failed the test. that's a bad sign for you, right? that's a bad sign for him, yes. it didn't tell you that he's guilty. but he was a very strong person of interest.

andrea canning: and what's more, the detective had been speaking with jamie's friends, who said the relationship wasn't fine. in fact, the couple had a fight and were on the verge of a breakup, all of which just led to more questions. basically went over every aspect of their relationship. just questioned him on his whereabouts, try to get him to confess. andrea canning: and if a failed polygraph wasn't suspicious enough, then listen to what the detective says chuck told him next. he said he had done some bad things and wouldn't tell us what. did you look him in the eyes and say, is one of those bad things killing jamie hart? i did. he denied it. at that point in time, i really thought he could be our killer. and the more you started to think that he was the killer, how does he react to that? he's very nervous. he just acted as if he was guilty. andrea canning: chuck was free to go. but as authorities waited for his dna to be processed,

the detective developed a theory of the crime that made sense to him. kenny elliott: he was in love with her. he didn't want to lose her. and they were having some issues in their relationship. andrea canning: so the boyfriend, a likely suspect, was in the crosshairs. but when the dna results came back-- the dna was not a match. so were you able to rule out chuck crews then, once you got that dna check? i didn't rule him out completely, no. that was enough for you with the friend who she was with the night before. you ruled him out after you got the dna, correct? i did. the other guy wasn't her boyfriend. he hadn't flunked polygraphs. he wasn't in a bad relationship with her. chuck was. andrea canning: but they didn't arrest chuck. months went by, and the detective kept investigating him. authorities seized his computer, searched his car. all the while, chuck was saying they were looking at the wrong guy. there's a lot of people that won't confess to a murder, for obvious reasons. at that point, he was a strong person of interest.

but i still didn't know if he was my killer. so we continued the search. andrea canning: the investigation dragged on. life for the students on campus began to go back to normal. but when police were called to the scene of one house party, it wasn't because of noise or underage drinking. another woman was in a fight for her life. craig melvin: coming up, a student at a party ends up a prisoner in a stranger's apartment-- kristin lancaster: and immediately, he grabs me and starts choking me again. craig melvin: --when "dateline" continues. [music playing] the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time, and over time it can help lower your a1c. ♪♪ this is progress. learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪ hot flash sweat just happens but secret whole body, dry feel, deodorant absorbs sudden sweat for 72 hour freshness everywhere.

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at social security that would have caused the administrator to resign? right now, in our time today, the unpopularity of what they're doing really does create real political pressure at the real political pressure at the source to stop it, andrea canning: when chuck crews's girlfriend was murdered, he was immediately considered a person of interest. they said that you were acting nervous, that you were acting like you had something to hide. they interpreted all these things as signs of my guilt rather than a distraught boyfriend. at the time, i had long hair. and this was a cowboy town. that was considered to be weird and unusual. andrea canning: as for those bad things he told the detective he'd done? he explained to us he was referring to a petty argument they'd had just days before jamie's murder and the guilt he felt from not being with her the night she died. do you remember what you were arguing about? a loaf of bread.

the grocery sacker had put a cantaloupe on a loaf of bread. and she was upset that the sacker had squished the bread. and i told her it wasn't that big of a deal. and we had picked our sides, and we argued about something as stupid as a loaf of bread. andrea canning: and now he says he could hardly grieve with police breathing down his neck. what's it like waking up every morning and knowing that you're under a cloud of suspicion? incredibly depressing. andrea canning: he left college station, moved home to be with his family near dallas, who spent money to hire a defense attorney. the biggest thing that was going through my mind the whole time was that i didn't do it. they don't know who did it. and the guy who did it is out walking around and likely to prey on more victims. this monster is walking free while they're

wasting their time on me. andrea canning: kelly brown of "the eagle" newspaper was writing front-page stories about the unsolved crime in the college town. and it really shook the community because this is an area that isn't used to seeing this type of crime. andrea canning: and kelly was hearing talk that the police had a suspect. but there was no arrest. and that's what kept everybody saying, well, then, ok, was it the boyfriend? was it someone that's still out there? is he gonna strike again? andrea canning: it was scary, of course. and students like kristin lancaster followed the investigation. did people change their behavior patterns because of this crime? to a certain degree. but i think it was short-lived. i mean, people went back to their classes and their business. you start rationalizing that maybe she trusted the wrong person. this doesn't happen to you. exactly, yeah. andrea canning: and then it was late october, half a year since the murder of jamie hart. kristin didn't know it yet, but she was about to become part of a chain of events

that only deepened the mystery. i think maybe i went to classes that day. i'm not exactly sure. i know that the evening time rolled around. i think it-- was it a friday? andrea canning: a friend invited kristin to a party. and she said, well, i'm having a little get-together at my house. why don't you come by? andrea canning: kristin drove over to the apartment complex in bryan, texas. that's the town next to college station. the doors open, and there's a few people inside. there's some music playing, people having some drinks. andrea canning: she struck up a conversation with her friend's upstairs neighbor. he was 24, hadn't been to college, but mixed in easily with the students. was he kind of a likeable guy? he seemed, yeah, very likeable. yeah. he was very approachable, seemed very nice. andrea canning: in fact, he had no problem sharing intimate details with kristin about his personal life. he had been married. and somehow the conversation goes into him telling me how he had found god. and i made a lot of mistakes. i wasn't a great husband. you guys got into quite the personal conversation for having just met.

well, i was young. and i think that was normal. and he was drunk. andrea canning: not long after the party started, it abruptly ended. kristin's friend hosting the party got into a fight with her boyfriend. there was alcohol involved, so it was-- worrying that it would get out of hand. andrea canning: everyone left, but not kristin. she was concerned about her friend and stuck around talking to the upstairs neighbor. so you were feeling protective? yeah. he actually said to me, you're worried about your friend? i said, yes i am. and he said, we can go to my apartment, and that way you can be close to a phone to call. andrea canning: she and the neighbor walked up the staircase to his apartment. kristin lancaster: it's directly above her apartment. and he opens the door. and i was barely a step into the door, and he just sort of kind of pushes me and slams the door shut. he locks the door and immediately grabs a remote that was right there and turns the stereo up to this deafening volume, just deafening. andrea canning: kristin reached for the door to leave. and he pushes me back. and that's when he starts making some demands.

all of a sudden, it's very serious and aggressive, and almost to the point where i thought he was joking. andrea canning: but he was serious, demanded she undress. and i kept arguing with him, i'm not gonna do that. i kept saying, i'm not gonna do it. and he's like, you're gonna do it. and that's when he runs over and he grabs me by the throat. he's choking me and choking me. and then the second he lets up, i scream as loud as i can. and then immediately, he grabs me and starts choking me again. and this time, he picks me up almost by the throat and sort of pulls me back into the bedroom that's in the back. you're a prisoner in this apartment now. yes. and he puts me on the mattress. and this is the first time i black out. i wondered for a second if this was it. i could die? yeah. he has his hand still on my throat. and he was sort of shaking me. andrea canning: kristin couldn't fight him off physically, so she tried to talk her way out of a sexual assault. i said, you don't want to do this. and he stops. and he looks at me, and he says, why don't i want to do this? and i say, well, because i have hiv. and you can tell he's thinking about it for a second.

and he says to me, well, guess what? so do i. andrea canning: the lie didn't work. she tried something else. i was like, well, what about finding god and trying to work on yourself? and i actually was able to stall him for quite some time. i must have gotten off the bed. and we were standing talking. and i remember that's when i started to stomp my foot. and i was sort of trying to make it look like i was making a point and stomping my foot. and then he grew angry again. andrea canning: he threw her back on the bed, his grip on her neck tighter as he sexually assaulted her. he's squeezing so hard at this point in time that it felt like the bones in my throat were cracking. and i said, if you keep doing this, you're going to kill me. and he sort of looked at me. and it was this half smile. and he looked at me for a second, and he just said, do you think i actually care about that? is is that when you feel like you're looking in the face of evil? i mean, i knew then, completely in that moment, that he intended on killing me. craig melvin: coming up, a knock at the door--

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alright, let's go then. ahaha! cash brothers! yeah! cashback like a pro with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? chase, make more of what's yours. (♪♪) >> com download. >> the free app now. >> i'm richard lui with a news update. israel is. halting all entry. >> of. >> humanitarian aid and. goods into. >> the gaza strip, and warned of further consequences after hamas refused. >> to. >> accept its proposal to. >> extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal. >> the u.s. >> says. >> it will expedite. >> 4 billion in military aid to israel that reverses. partial arms embargo. >> from the. >> biden administration. >> an indie. >> film. >> dominated the oscars. >> taking home five. >> awards including best. >> picture, best. >> director and best actress. for now. >> back. >> back. >> to dateline. i'm craig melvin. just months after one woman was raped and killed in a texas college town, a second woman was under attack in a nearby community. kristin lancaster was certain the man meant to kill her.

but what seemed like an end turned out to be the beginning of a fierce fight for the truth. back with "the face of evil," here's andrea canning. [music playing] andrea canning: 19-year-old kristin lancaster was preparing to die. when you're possibly in the last moments of your life, when you think that someone is going to kill you, what is going through your mind? i had a moment where i thought about i wish i'd told the people that i loved that i loved them. andrea canning: she was in a stranger's apartment being sexually assaulted, drifting in and out of consciousness. kristin lancaster: i black out. but then i start to come to again. and it's-- you know the scenes in the movies where the bombs explode? and everything's really fuzzy. you can't hear. everything's coming through this fog. [music playing] andrea canning: suddenly, the man stood up and left the room, ordered her to remain quiet. and i scream as loud as i can, call the police.

call the police. andrea canning: turns out the bryan police were at the door. so my friend had heard me screaming and stomping and had called the police. this is like a miracle-- it was. yeah. --that in the nick of time, the police show up. that only happens on tv. i know. believe me, i know. they ran in. i was just curled in a fetal position on the floor, just shaking, shaking uncontrollably. and then i remember them asking me what happened. and i just-- the words were just coming out so fast. andrea canning: the cops took the man away in handcuffs, and kristin slept on her friend's couch that night. the friend called the police to see what would happen next. she found out that they didn't book him for sexual assault charges. andrea canning: in fact, kristin's attacker, the man she said almost killed her, had been released. that must have been a tough pill to swallow. it was terrifying because i just thought he was going to come and find me and kill me. andrea canning: down at the police station, the man had given a wildly different version of events.

eric buske is the current bryant police chief. he wasn't with the department back then, but says the suspect told investigators that he and kristin had a fight over drugs. eric buske: she got angry when he substituted aspirin for cocaine. and she went off in a rage when that occurred. i think he had told them some story about how it had been a drug deal that had gone bad, and so then i was crying rape. andrea canning: after the attack, police charged him with unlawful restraint, a misdemeanor. the next day, kristin and her dad went to the bryan police department to find out why her attacker wasn't charged with something more serious. i was furious because i had thought in this moment that i survived, i survived. this is it. this guy is going down. andrea canning: she met with a detective who asked her questions, lots of them. i had bruises all up and down my throat. i couldn't swallow. and at one point in time, the detective asked me to place my hands on my own throat, which even then, psychologically,

that was just even traumatizing. why would he want you to do that? because i did that. and then he looks at me, and he says, well, those could have been self-inflicted. what did you say to the detective who's coming up with these theories? i mean, i was hysterically crying and telling him, this man tried to kill me. and he would just say, well, that's not what he says. i'm like, of course that's not what he says. andrea canning: kristin says that despite her bruises, police treated it like a he said, she said story. how angry were you getting? i was furious. i just couldn't believe nobody believed me. andrea canning: chief buske maintains the detective was just doing a thorough investigation. everything i've read indicated that the detectives did believe her. sometimes when you're conducting an investigation, your job is to get to the truth as a detective. and you're gonna have to ask some hard questions. andrea canning: they interviewed her attacker again and a few months later did charge him with sexual assault. the unlawful restraint was still in place. and then we booked him on first-degree sexual assault. andrea canning: the case went to a grand jury, but it decided not to indict him.

so the sexual assault charges were dropped because they felt that there was insufficient evidence. that must have been tough to hear that. it was very tough to hear that. and it was at a point in time that when i found that out, i just didn't feel like i had any recourse. andrea canning: she did talk about the case later with reporter kelly brown. kelly brown: it bothered me at the time because i wondered, why didn't the grand jury indict him for at least attempted sexual assault? but it seemed a little troubling to me that what were we missing? what part of the story did we not have? did the detective say something that made them think maybe it was consensual? andrea canning: he was still facing the misdemeanor charge of unlawful restraint, scheduled to go to court down the road. in the meantime, he was a free man. he's out walking around. he's out walking around. andrea canning: in the next town over, detectives at the brazos county sheriff's office

were still working the jamie hart murder case. in addition to keeping an eye on jamie's boyfriend, chuck, they say they followed up on hundreds of other leads and tips. but no one in that department looked at kristin's case for a possible connection. you were sexually assaulted. jamie hart was sexually assaulted. did you start to think that these could be connected? i didn't think they were connected. and that was primarily because with jamie, there was a boyfriend that may have been involved. and it was a romantic relationship that went wrong. it wasn't some random occurrence by a stranger. andrea canning: kristin was now living with overwhelming anxiety and dread, which she says manifested into dangerous behavior. kristin lancaster: instead of being afraid of everything, i became afraid of nothing. i just became completely risk-seeking. what kinds of things would you do? i think i started drinking heavily for a while after that. you know, i'd hop on the back of a stranger's motorcycle

after he'd had three beers. and it took a long time to really get out of that hole. andrea canning: just as kristin was starting to turn a corner, her attacker was due in court on that misdemeanor charge. but nothing came of it. he didn't even show up. i'd done what i needed to do. and part of me just wanted to forget it ever happened. andrea canning: but she couldn't. kristin was about to walk right into another crime scene in college station. craig melvin: coming up, a shockingly brutal murder, and the suspect makes a big mistake-- jeff capps: the clothing that he was actually wearing was different than what he had just told us. craig melvin: --when "dateline" continues. [music playing] as. >> we have. >> joint health. >> comes first. >> and it starts with cosequin. >> for athletes in the ring. >> and at home. trust cosequin. >> and at home. trust cosequin. >> cosequin it ain't my dad's razor, dad.

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here in new york. >> msnbc premium gives you early access and ad free listening. to rachel maddow's chart topping series, msnbc original podcast's exclusive bonus content, and all of your favorite msnbc shows now ad free. subscribe on apple ad free. subscribe on apple podcasts. six months since kristin had been assaulted. her attacker had failed to show up in court and seemed to have just disappeared. didn't show up. didn't show up. andrea canning: in the next town over, detective kenny elliott continued to work the jamie hart murder case. he'd spent the last year casting a wide net for possible suspects. you took dna from 70 people? i think 77, mainly people that were being booked into jail for violent crimes, anyone that was in the area that just didn't want to talk. we took dna from everybody that would give it, practically. andrea canning: but he also had never taken his eye off her boyfriend, chuck crews.

there was just something that was bothering you about chuck crews. there was a lot bothering me about chuck crews. andrea canning: so the brazos county sheriff's office kept investigating chuck, even communicated with the da about possibly convening a grand jury. chuck and his lawyer spoke to the detective on many occasions, and the detective continued to think chuck's behavior was suspicious and that he still seemed nervous. did you ever think that maybe the reason that chuck crews was acting this way was that you guys were coming down pretty hard on him? and he's lost his girlfriend. i mean, is there a way to act? i don't know. but he had several things going against him. and we just couldn't walk away from him. we either had to prove that he did it or prove that he didn't do it. andrea canning: but chuck says he should have been cleared almost right away. so even though the dna didn't match-- chuck crews: there was no match, but they insisted on targeting

me as the prime suspect. they were trying to build a case that wasn't there. [music playing] andrea canning: while chuck's life had been on hold for a year, kristin was starting to feel like her old self again. in the six months since her attack, she'd taken up running, had a new boyfriend. and though kristin hoped the pain of that horrible night was behind her for good, it wasn't. there's police tape everywhere. andrea canning: may 28, 2000-- kristin had just arrived to visit friends at an apartment complex. there was no reason, not then, anyway, to think her case was connected to the scene unfolding there. police cars and ambulances and all kinds of vehicles, emergency response vehicles, everywhere. andrea canning: and now, the sight of police tape sent memories rushing back. it was just fear. andrea canning: firefighter leon moore had arrived at the apartment complex early that morning after a neighbor reported smoke in one of the units.

the bedroom door was open. and we could see some flames that were on the carpet. so we had a water extinguisher that we used and put the small fire out. andrea canning: there on the floor, a body. we backed out and made sure that we preserved as much evidence as we could. andrea canning: he sensed foul play, not just a fire, and called for detective jeff capps of the college station police department. it looked like her body had kind of been propped up onto the bed. she was nude from the waist down. this is really disturbing. it was. [music playing] andrea canning: the victim was 21-year-old carolyn casey, a daycare worker. her parents, anita and larry, so proud of their eldest daughter. she was wonderful with kids. all the kids loved her. everyone loved her. andrea canning: never could they have prepared themselves for the dreadful phone call they received. is your daughter carolyn casey? i said, yes. and i think he said, well, there's been an accident, and your daughter's dead.

a fire. andrea canning: when carolyn's younger sister, amanda, learned the news, she collapsed with grief. i just screamed really loud. made my ears ring from my screaming. they've got this wrong? yeah. something's wrong. she didn't die. i said, no. she's not dead. what was the turning point? i called her apartment, and she didn't answer. detective capps did say it was homicide. i think we had a strong feeling that possibly there was some type of sexual assault that occurred and that somebody was trying to cover up some evidence. andrea canning: kelly brown of "the eagle" newspaper had another story to write. this is a community that's not used to a lot of murders. it's not used to violent crimes like this. and it certainly wasn't used to having a murder victim be set on fire.

even law enforcement, they thought, what do we have on our hands here? andrea canning: on the night of carolyn's murder, there had been a small party in one of the apartments. and now the detective was canvassing the complex, looking for leads. so you're literally knocking on doors? yes. andrea canning: in one unit, two men answered. one of them had been to the party. his name was ynobe matthews. he mentioned that he did attend this party. she was there. andrea canning: like many people who'd attended, ynobe agreed to an interview, his down at the police department. he was friendly and cooperative, said carolyn had left the party before he had. he later left the party, went with another female that was at the party over to a convenience store that was close by, bought some cigarettes. andrea canning: ynobe gave the detective a dna sample and supplied the clothes he'd been wearing. to verify his alibi, the detective pulled surveillance video from the convenience store and noticed something.

the clothing that he was actually wearing was different than what he had just told us. why is he not telling us the truth? andrea canning: ynobe claimed he had simply forgotten, and then handed the detective the proper clothing. no forensic evidence found on the clothes connected him to the crime scene. so this wasn't your big moment? no, it wasn't. andrea canning: the big moment did come, though, just a few nights later, when the pieces of this puzzle finally came together. [music playing] craig melvin: coming up, an arrest of a familiar suspect-- i didn't think he would do it again. craig melvin: --when "dateline" continues. [music playing] i've got to get marcus some new cleats i bet you can buy the whole team new cleats with all that money you saved. nancy dawson is passive progressive. you know, nancy, that's actually really inappr-- oh! nancy doesn't have progressive so she takes it out on those who do. you should get luca private coaching with that. maybe he'll score a goal.

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as carolyn casey's family grieved their loss, detectives struggled to make sense of the crime scene. as they canvassed the area looking for leads, a possible suspect emerged. here's andrea canning with the final chapter of "the face of evil." andrea canning: it was two nights after the murder and fire. detective capps made a discovery, one that would finally connect the dots in this series of crimes that had terrorized this college town. i spent that evening basically reading through all these reports. andrea canning: the detective had ordered background checks on some of the people who attended the party in carolyn's apartment complex,

including ynobe matthews. it turns out there were several police reports in the file accusing ynobe of a number of crimes. mr. matthews had a tendency to try to sexually assault females. and in the process of that, he would choke them if they were not willing to have sex with him. how did carolyn die? jeff capps: her death was ruled a strangulation. so things started kind of matching up. andrea canning: ynobe had never been convicted of sexual assault. but in the files, the detective read the account of one particularly brutal attack. the case ended up being charged as a misdemeanor, unlawful restraint. it was kristin's. ynobe was the man she says almost killed her. i was certain that he had done this before. but at the same time, i didn't think he would do it again. andrea canning: the detective called ynobe matthews back down to the station for another interview and decided to pull a fast one with his suspect,

telling him he was about to get dna results from the crime scene. were you, really, about to get it that quickly? we weren't gonna get it that quickly, that day. but tried to get him to believe that we had that information, that we had everything that we needed. i had contacted my supervisor earlier. and i told him if he would page me, just type in the words that says, dna matches. andrea canning: and right on cue, the detective's pager went off. [beeping] and i showed it to mr. matthews and asked him to read it. it said, dna matches. so what's his face like when he looks at that match? he became pretty emotional. and he said, it was an accident, but he had killed her. andrea canning: the detective called carolyn's parents and gave them the news of the confession. they said, i think we got him. i said, well, how sure? he said, i'll bet the farm on it. andrea canning: it was the next morning when kristin lancaster opened up the newspaper and learned her attacker

had been charged with murder. i felt overwhelming guilt, just overwhelming guilt, knowing that he'd killed someone and that perhaps i hadn't tried hard enough to make people believe me. did you feel like a life could have been saved if you had been taken more seriously? oh, yes. carolyn would still be here. i mean, there's no doubt. andrea canning: and what about the woman at the start of our story? jamie hart's case had been handled by the brazos county sheriff's office. but after ynobe was arrested, it didn't take long for the college station police department and the sheriff's office to compare the dna. what they found-- ynobe was also jamie's killer. what's that moment like? i remember the feeling of wanting to feel relieved. but all i could think was, this is exactly what i knew was going to happen. he struck again.

another girl is dead, and another family has lost their precious daughter. andrea canning: chuck says to this day, he misses jamie and has never gotten over being viewed as a suspect. having to spend such a long time under investigation for the death of a loved one, it hurts. it's like a scar. very much so. very much so. do you feel bad about that at all, that he was put through that? i'm sorry that he had to go through that, yes. but if i had to do the investigation over, i wouldn't change anything. i'm sorry he lost the love of his life. but we had a job to do, and we had to either arrest him for murder or clear him. we cleared him. [music playing] andrea canning: but before jamie, before kristin, before carolyn, there was another victim who soon learned she was also connected to this horrifying series of events.

her name is misty johnson. if i didn't let him rape me, he would have killed me. andrea canning: like kristin, misty reported her attack to the bryan police department. but ynobe denied it, claiming it was consensual. and misty was too traumatized to help police in the investigation. probably within a week, i quit my job and left town. i was scared. andrea canning: she now regrets that decision. her attack happened first, months before jamie was murdered. i feel like if i would have stayed and fought him through the police department, that possibly he wouldn't have been able to go on to hurt anyone else. andrea canning: and kristin is left with the memory of an assault that according to the law never really happened. i was so angry that two people had to die in order for someone to believe me. did the system fail? it failed me. it failed carolyn. it failed jamie.

you think about them a lot? they were total strangers to you. but they're my alternative future. i mean, they're what could have happened to me. i mean, they're what could have happened to any of us. andrea canning: a jury convicted ynobe matthews of carolyn's murder and sentenced him to death. he also pleaded guilty to jamie's murder. kristin faced him in court during the penalty phase. it was terrifying. and i had to testify. and i met carolyn's family and jamie's family. they all came out afterwards and gave me a hug. it helped me realize that their families didn't hold any grudge against me. it's not her fault that my sister died. and kristin should have no guilt over that. andrea canning: with the casey family as witnesses, ynobe matthews was executed three years later. [music playing] if there is a lesson to take from this story, it is one that comes directly from a survivor herself,

someone who has learned the hard way to cherish life's moments, each and every one. it makes you realize how fragile your life is and that anybody can take it in a moment's notice. the story for them, that's it. that's their life story. the final chapter's been written. but for me, i get to keep going on. what would you call yourself? i mean, people have called me a survivor. i would call myself lucky. [music playing] that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. [music playing] >> this ♪♪ ♪♪ this sunday, breaking point. >> you don't have the cards right now. >> a dramatic oval office meeting with ukraine's president turns combative as tensions rise