.
- In the criminal justice system,
sexually based offenses
are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives
who investigate these vicious felonies
are members of an elite squad
known as the Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
[indistinct chatter]
[Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" playing faintly]
♪
[laughter]
- This is it, folks. It's moments like this
where it all comes down to one shot at glory.
The crowd's on their feet in Allentown tonight
to cheer on its hamper hero,
Crystal Sykes!
- ♪ And that's some bread now ♪
♪ This one said he wants to buy you rockets ♪
- Shannah, I just want to go to the pool.
- Yeah, well, Mom said we had to clean our room.
- Okay, but this is your sock.
So why don't you just walk it to the hamper?
- Because that's boring, idiot.
- Oh, my God, it stinks.
- Eh, well, all the more reason to make this shot.
With the game on the line, Crystal makes the free throw!
Yeah! [both grunt]
- Shannah, phone call.
- Who is it?
- Michael. - Yuck.
- Hey, don't say that. He's nice.
- Shannah, I'm melting.
- Just go ahead without me. I'll meet you there.
- ♪ Just go ahead now
♪ And if you'd like to tell me "maybe" ♪
♪ Just go ahead now
♪ And if you would like to buy me flowers ♪
♪ Just go ahead now...
[ominous music]
♪
- Damn, girl.
Picked a hell of a day to bike to the pool.
It's hot out here.
- Not when I get there it won't be.
- Well, you ain't gonna make it like that.
Tire's flat.
- You got a bike pump?
- No.
But I'm going to the pool, same as you.
How about I give you a lift?
- My sister should be coming up the road any minute now.
- Well, so you'll beat her there.
- My mom said not to go with strangers.
- [chuckles] I ain't asking you to get in.
Come on.
Hop in the back with your bike.
What's the matter, silly?
Never rode in the bed of a pickup truck before?
- Have too.
- Well, come on then.
Toss it up in there.
♪
Don't worry.
I'll help you.
[engine turns over]
♪
- Hey.
- Thank you for meeting me.
- You're the one who called.
- Yeah, well, you haven't come into work
since the Brouchard trial.
- Yeah, I got your messages.
- Yeah, and you didn't call me back.
- Uh, I'll take another. And for my friend--
- No, thanks, I'm good. - All right, just the one.
Thank you.
- Look, I know that I'm not your boss,
but is everything okay?
- Oh, yeah.
- Well, that is the most "no" sounding "yeah"
I've ever heard in my life.
- [laughs]
Thank you.
It was the, um,
anniversary of her disappearance three days ago.
- Oh, your sister?
- Yeah, Crystal.
[pensive music]
- So that's, uh-- that's why you went MIA?
Look, if you don't want to talk to me, then...
how about a good therapist?
- [scoffs]
I got my own way of dealing with things, okay?
So listen, I talked to Clay,
and, uh, he's putting me on a case.
There's a missing boy in Wisconsin.
- How come you don't just try to find your sister?
- Honestly, I'd just rather move on.
- Well, is this your way of moving on?
- [laughs] - Throwing a grenade
into your life with a three-day bender?
- All right. All right.
- I know that you're too tough for therapy and--
and closure, but, um--
but what about your parents?
- My parents are 70.
- You don't think they want to know what happened?
- I think it nearly killed them
when the wrong remains were found 20 years ago.
- And what if he's still out there hurting young girls?
You've dedicated your life to helping victims.
- Okay. Okay.
I don't need to know what happened to my sister
to do my job.
- Listen, you're drunk,
so at least let me drive you home, okay?
- I guess I will see you when I see you.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
- I can smell the mildew on those files from here.
What case you working on,
disappearance of the Lindbergh baby?
- I caught a cold case last night.
- Last night? I thought you were with Sykes.
- Yeah, I was.
- So what's happening with her? Is she coming back?
- You know, Fin, to be honest with you, I really don't know.
I think, um,
Sykes has some stuff that she needs to work out.
- Some of that stuff wouldn't have to do
with her missing sister?
Okay, you didn't exactly catch a cold case.
It caught you.
- Okay.
So I went through
Crystal Sykes' case files on--on ViCAP.
- Sykes know that?
- No, and she doesn't need to hear it from you.
- Fair enough.
What'd you find out?
- So ViCAP flagged some other abduction cases
that were in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.
- But didn't Sykes grow up in Allentown?
- Yes, and that's why I think
that we're looking at a marauder.
- A serial predator that works an area.
- So Crystal Sykes had Polaroids taken of her
that were found in the woods as evidence.
Now, I found some other cases that were similar.
- So where do we start?
We get lucky, trace the guy through the camera?
- Well, I already woke up this poor kid at TARU
at 3:00 in the morning
and hit a dead end at the factory.
You know, these Polaroids are analog.
- No metadata.
You didn't happen to wake up any of the white shirts
at 1PP, did you?
- Uh, no. Why would I do that?
- Just wondering how they would feel about Manhattan SVU
going after a 27-year-old case in Allentown.
- Well, luckily for us, one of the cases
is actually in our jurisdiction.
[suspenseful music]
- Gwen Markham, missing in 2002.
Well, at least that's this century.
- Look--and a body was recovered.
And maybe there could be some biological evidence
that they didn't think was valuable, but is now.
- That's worth looking into, but this is gonna get messy.
I mean, we can keep this from Sykes,
but what do we tell the rest of the squad?
- We tell them that we're just doing our jobs.
We're looking at six cold cases,
all missing girls over a decade-long time span.
- Why are we looking into this now?
- Because, uh, Carisi has a case coming up on appeal--
- And? - He asked me to look into it.
So there are two kinds of serial predators.
There are commuters and marauders.
Commuters travel to a given location to find victims.
- Marauders stick to one locale but offend all around it.
- In this case, the Northeast.
- Yeah, that's his crime range.
- So he lives somewhere in here.
- Hundred square miles.
- Doesn't exactly narrow it down.
- Yeah, where do we start? - Actually, we start
with the one crime that was in our jurisdiction--
Gwen Markham.
- They located a body.
- From 2002?
- Did Homicide find any forensic evidence on the body?
- It was over 20 years ago,
but forensics has improved exponentially since then.
- We're gonna exhume her?
- Yes, with permission from the family.
- So what's the overlap of these two New York cases?
- Markham and Dao both went missing
while headed home alone.
- So Gwen Markham here in Washington Heights
and Kimberly Dao in the Hudson Valley.
- During the same time period?
- About two years apart, but it's close enough.
- Now, Gwen Markham's family still lives
in the same place they did when she went missing.
- They willing to talk?
- We won't know till we knock on their door.
- Fin and I are gonna talk to the Markhams.
- Kim Dao has a father. He owns a dry cleaners upstate.
- Velasco and Bruno, if you could talk to Mr. Dao.
And, Curry, see if you can come up
with any labs on Gwen Markham.
- Okay.
♪
- Every weekend, Gwen and I would ride our bikes
along the river, down to the Village.
That weekend was no different.
- So you and Gwen were first cousins?
- Mm-hmm.
- You must have been close.
- They were the same age. - She was like a sister to me.
- If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you
to take us back to the day that Gwen went missing.
- [sighs]
It was July 19th. It was summer.
We were off from school.
Gwen and I just got back from one of our long bike rides.
- Before she left, I asked her to pick up eggs.
She forgot.
- So you sent her back out?
- It wasn't even late.
- Back then, you knew people in the neighborhood by name.
- They'd wave, say hello.
- It still don't make no sense.
- We looked for days, everyone did.
My aunt and uncle--
we--we got all the tenants in the building,
next door, the whole street.
- After all that,
she was found by a dog.
- [groans, scoffs]
Why are you dredging up the past?
- Mr. Markham, I appreciate how--how hard this is,
how difficult it is.
But we're just looking for any details
that the initial investigators may have missed.
- After 22 years, I still remember her smile, her laugh.
But all the rest of that stuff,
the pain surrounding the investigation,
we all locked it away because it never went nowhere.
- We understand your frustration.
- As far as I'm concerned, we buried all this with Gwen.
And whoever took her,
I hope he's underneath the ground now, too,
and that his soul is burning in hell.
- Lee, they only want to help.
[somber music]
I'm sorry. - We don't mean to cause you
any more pain than you've already gone through,
believe me.
- The last time, cops just gave up.
They left us without any answers.
- That's why we're here.
[cell phone buzzing]
If you would excuse me.
- Of course.
- Listen, if you think of anything,
day or night, give us a call, doesn't matter.
- If you guys are gonna start all this again,
you better finish it.
- I would be happy to.
No, no, no. It's not any trouble at all.
I--I think we can get there in--in probably two hours.
Great. Thank you so much,
and thank you for calling me back.
Okay. See you soon.
- Who was that? - I think I just figured out
a way around our jurisdictional limitations.
- You did? - That was the retired
detective on the Crystal Sykes kidnapping case.
- And he wants to talk to us?
What does he have to add other than giving us
probable cause to include her along with the New York cases?
- Well, you can ask him yourself...
after you drive us to Allentown.
Come on, let's take the stairs.
- My daughter is still out there.
She's coming home one day.
- It's good to have hope.
- She's 38, a woman now.
Who knows?
- Is that your daughter?
- Yes, that's Kim.
- She's beautiful.
- Thank you.
I don't have a more recent photo of her,
but I'm sure she still is.
Maybe she escaped the man who took her
and just couldn't find her way home.
Maybe she settled down somewhere.
Maybe she got married.
[chuckling] I might be a grandfather.
- Mr. Dao, we've been going over your daughter's case file.
- Is there anything else you can tell us
about Kim's disappearance? - You know, something, um,
you wouldn't know to tell the police back in 2000.
- You mean the greeting cards?
[tense music]
- Greeting cards? - What greeting cards?
- Handwritten, from Kimmy, for different holidays.
- You're saying your daughter sent you holiday cards?
- For years after she went missing.
- And you think it was Kim's writing?
- One day they just stopped.
- How long after they started?
- Like I said, uh, a few years.
Haven't gotten one since.
You think maybe this means Kimmy escaped?
- Where are these greeting cards now?
♪
- I want them back... [chuckles]
In case Kimmy asks for them someday.
- Lemonade.
Made it myself, just like the wife used to.
- Well, thank you, Detective McCluskey.
- I haven't been Detective McCluskey
in 20 years now. Please, call me Ed.
- Ed.
- I gotta say, I was glad you called.
But why did you two start looking
at Crystal Sykes's old case?
- Curiosity. - You know, we came, uh,
across your name on ViCAP, and we were wondering what--
what you remembered.
- The thing that case taught me--
memory is a monster.
I forget. It doesn't.
- When's the last time you got a call about her?
- I keep in touch with Shannah and her parents
from time to time, exchange Christmas cards,
run into each other every couple of years
in a supermarket.
But as far as hearing from another cop,
this is the first time in a long, long while.
♪
.
- That photo looks a lot like the one that Shannah showed me.
- Who do you think gave it to her?
- How long ago?
- After I found out she was going to the FBI Academy.
- What, you thought it would motivate her?
- I thought it might just stop her from blaming herself.
But instead, Shannah just locked it away in her purse.
- Well, like you said, memory is a monster.
- Part of me thinks that Crystal's case
is the only thing keeping me alive.
- You know, maybe the same goes for Shannah.
Maybe she thinks that, if she solves this case,
it'll take away the one thing that's driving her.
- Is that why you're going behind her back?
- Lying has a bad rap,
but it can be pretty therapeutic.
- Especially when you're going for a greater truth.
Look, we put together a geographic Venn diagram.
- We've narrowed down the perp's home base
to about a hundred square miles.
- You gonna tell her you're looking into it?
- As soon as you find the guy.
- Me? - We can't look
outside of New York on this one.
- Not without catching a rain of hellfire from 1PP.
- Well, I'm gonna catch a rain of hellfire from Shannah
if she finds out I'm looking into it.
- Well, I'm not gonna tell her, and neither is he.
Are you?
- No.
- Then we will send you everything we have.
- What the hell else have I got to do?
- Lab get anything off those greeting cards?
- Well, I see the sender was smart enough
to leave off the return addresses.
- But what they didn't know-- on the backside
of every letter is a small barcode.
- It's called a VES tag. - And?
- TARU traced the point of origin
to a PO box in Bayonne, New Jersey.
- A name attached?
- Yeah, Ronald Givens.
- He have a record?
- He had a DUI in the '80s.
Other than that, he's clean.
- Okay. You get in contact with him?
- Not without a Ouija board.
Givens died in 2012.
- But he had a son named Ronnie Jr.
- So head out to Jersey and see what this Givens guy remembers
about his father.
And then we have Gwen Markham.
- Yeah, managed to locate her grave out in Queens.
- Did you track down the tech who did the original work?
- Found one guy who was just an assistant tech at the time.
He remembers him and his old supervisor
pulling samples, but--
- Nothing conclusive? - No.
But that doesn't mean anything.
I mean, like you said, technology's made
leaps and bounds since then.
- It's at least enough for a request for exhumation.
- Look, I'm going to get Carisi
to push through the court order, right?
It should be straightforward,
provided the parents go along with it.
- From what you said about how they reacted
to a whole new set of cops showing up,
it's a pretty big if.
- My dad didn't send those.
- Well, we think he did.
- Kim Dao went missing back in the summer of 2000.
- Sure, I remember. It was all over the local news.
- Well, someone sent these greeting cards to her father.
- "Dear Dad, Daddy, I miss you. Love, Kim."
- Again, my dad didn't send those.
- Well, they came from a PO box in your dad's name.
- I know.
I sent them.
- You sent them?
- I was 14, same age as Kim.
- You tortured her poor father. You gave him false hope.
- I was only trying to help.
- Well, you're gonna have to walk me through that.
- I thought Kim was kind of cute
when I saw her picture on the news.
I--I bonded with her.
- You mean you fantasized about her.
- I remember seeing her dad on TV
pleading for her safe return.
I also read that the police investigation was stalled,
so I--I figured if he got some letters,
it might give them a reason to keep looking.
- And then what?
She'd get rescued and invite you to prom?
- I was an unpopular kid who wanted his life
to be as big as what I was reading in true crime books.
- So what happened? Why'd you stop?
- I moved onto other stuff.
[tense music]
Anything else I can help you with?
- Actually, there is.
- You know, if you'd licked the envelopes,
you could have saved us a trip.
- Open up and say "ah."
- So the greeting cards were sent to Kim Dao's father
by a teenager?
- A true crime buff with a vic fetish.
- Yeah, he was 14 when Kim Dao went missing.
- Doesn't rule him out as a suspect.
- Well, we have his DNA.
So when we exhume Gwen,
we have something to test it against.
- Gwen's been buried for over 20 years.
If the ground was wet or the coffin got ruptured...
[cell phone buzzes] Who says we'll even get
a viable sample? - Ah, it's Carisi.
Hey, how'd it go?
What?
What happened?
I kn--I know, but can't you--
Okay.
No, I understand.
So the court order was denied.
You were right.
Her parents don't want
their daughter's grave site disturbed.
- There's got to be another way around that, no?
- What about the cousin, Cal?
- He did seem pretty gung-ho about solving it.
- Maybe we can use him to talk to the parents.
Let's do that.
- So this is where she went missing...
At least from what we think,
'cause the cops found the carton of eggs
that she went out to buy in the trash over there.
- With your aunt and uncle standing in our way,
it's gonna be next to impossible to exhume Gwen.
- Well, you're the cops.
Can't you just, like, subpoena them or something?
- Yeah, unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.
- With no new evidence,
our DA's gonna tell us to pound sand.
- So do you think you can talk sense into them?
- I'll try.
But my uncle's head is harder than the wood on that bench.
- Well, you were the last one to see her alive, weren't you?
- [laughs dryly] Yeah.
Before she went missing, we made a plan to meet
at a handball court in a schoolyard not far from here.
My friend Tony, we were gonna teach her how to play.
- So you have an alibi? - I told those cops
everything I know back in the day.
And as soon as they hit a dead end just like this,
they start gunning for me as a suspect.
- Did you help them? Were you--were you honest?
- Yeah, you're damn right I told them the truth.
I wanted to find whoever hurt Gwen.
I still do.
You know what? You--you two,
you talked a real big game yesterday.
But it turns out you're just like all the other cops.
- He's right, you know.
- No, he's not.
- This case went cold for a reason, Liv.
- Hey, Cal. Wait up.
We're not giving up on Gwen, and neither should you.
- I'm sick of feeling powerless.
- Well, then do something about it.
Look, you were young when Gwen went missing.
But you're not a helpless teenager anymore.
You're a grown man. Maybe there were details
about this case that you wanted to forget,
that you filed away, that you kept hidden,
because you weren't ready to deal with them.
I need you to rack your brain,
because if your aunt and uncle won't help us...
[soft suspenseful music]
We need to bring something bigger to court.
- Like what?
- Like new evidence.
- A new suspect?
- Something that will cut through the red tape.
♪
- How'd the cousin take it?
- He's frustrated.
The guy lost hope a long time ago.
- Can't say I blame him.
- But without that court order,
Gwen Markham doesn't get us any closer to our marauder.
- You track down next of kin
for any of the other open cases?
- No one who was willing to talk.
[cell phone buzzes] - Yeah, we're stuck
with what we have in front of us.
- We can re-canvass the Markham case
and go after old witnesses.
- I already tried, just a bunch of circles.
- Hey, guys, I got to take this.
Ed.
- Captain, um, I got a copy of that map you sent me,
and it got me thinking about the Polaroids.
- Polaroids, why?
- Particularly in the other two cases, where--
where the Polaroids were found in the woods, uh,
Scranton, Cherry Hill-- just like Crystal's.
If I didn't know better, I would say
that the guy got married around those years.
- Why would you say that?
- Well, the Polaroids are souvenirs, right?
- And he was suddenly scared
somebody he loved would find them.
- Absolutely.
- Uh, Ed--Ed, I got to go.
[soft dramatic music]
Cal, what's going on?
- I did it.
I killed Gwen.
So I raped and killed my own cousin.
♪
.
- So this guy just walks in and confesses
to a 22-year-old murder? - Apparently so.
- So what's the play here?
- Take his confession, you and Curry.
- All right, by the book.
We Mirandize him, record the statement.
- I expect nothing less from you, Captain.
- Mr. Markham, do you understand
the rights I've just read to you?
- I do. I don't need a lawyer.
- Okay, then. What do you want to tell us?
- I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.
[tense music]
It was me. I killed Gwen.
- Walk us through what happened.
- [stammering] You know how I-- I told those original cops
that I was supposed to meet Gwen
at a handball court nearby?
- You had an alibi.
- Your friend Tony said you were at the courts with him.
- Yeah, that's the thing.
He, uh--Tony lied for me.
The truth is, is that I went to the deli with her.
And, uh, I--I tried to get her
to do stuff with me on the walk back.
- Your own cousin?
- Yeah, I know it's sick.
But...I was having a bad time that summer.
I was lonely. I was angry.
I'd watch her get dressed sometimes,
and I'd wonder.
- Okay.
Then what?
- Then she tried screaming, and it freaked me out.
So, uh, I put my hand on her throat,
you know, just to try to get her to quiet down.
And, uh, she stopped breathing.
[clears throat] So I hid her body
behind a rock wall under some brush.
[sniffles]
- Mr. Markham,
is there a reason why you're confessing now?
- So, uh, everyone can have closure...
All of us,
including me.
- What'd you say to him
at the park when you went after him?
- I told him that we're not giving up,
but...we needed new evidence.
- And then, poof, magically he makes a full confession?
- Well, I didn't put him up to it.
- And the only way to clear him
is to exhume Gwen Markham's body.
- If you think that that's a false confession,
then you and I both know that's the only way to do it.
- And funnily enough, it's also the best way
to ID Crystal Sykes's killer.
- Yes, and I'm just as surprised as you are.
- This guy's going to Rikers.
- And if it makes you feel more comfortable,
I can have him sent to the Brooklyn House of Detention.
- And what happens if there's no DNA on the body?
- DNA is a very durable molecule.
If it's there, the M.E. will find it.
- For this guy's sake,
I hope so.
- What are we looking for?
- Low-level touch samples, residual semen--
- No, I mean, why is Benson so obsessed with this case?
- You know Benson, bringing closure to the families.
- Yeah, but this is a bit above and beyond,
don't you think?
- Captain, some good news from the lab.
- They found DNA on Gwen's body?
- Touch DNA, and they were able
to pull a profile from the traces of semen.
- We get an actual match?
- Excluding Cal... - Okay, good.
- And our true crime nut, Ronnie Jr.
- But nothing in CODIS on the actual perp?
- Not so far.
- All right, what about the genealogical websites?
- They're working on that.
[soft tense music]
♪
- Jane Doe?
Might as well have had the common courtesy
to use her name. - Shannah, listen to me.
I can explain all of this. - I asked you to leave
my sister's case alone.
What, you didn't think I'd-- I'd find out
with all my contacts in Allentown?
- Of course I did.
But I read your sister's file...
- [laughing dryly] Well, hold on.
It looks like you did a little more than that.
I mean, look at this board. - And I found
that there were five other missing girls.
- This is not about the vics.
This is not about me.
This is about you.
- This guy has been at this for over 30 years.
- Mm-hmm. - There are five other
open cases, which means there are five other families
involved in this, Shannah.
So it's not about you
or me or Crystal. - Oh, okay.
- It's bigger than us. - You know what?
Allentown PD paid a visit to my parents today.
My mother called me crying.
- What can I do? - I want you to leave it alone.
- I'm sorry, but I--
I can't do that.
- Embedding here was a mistake.
- I'm sorry you feel that way, because I certainly don't.
- Good luck with your open cases.
I hope they help distract you
from your own endless amounts of baggage.
- I know that this is painful--
- Johnny D.
William Lewis.
You think you're the only one
who can look into someone's background?
♪
.
- Hey, Fin, I really don't need an "I told you so" from you.
- Have I ever?
- No, you haven't, but...
probably should have told Sykes.
- It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission,
the 16th Precinct way, right?
- I don't see forgiveness coming my way anytime soon.
- But we did get new forensics off Gwen's body.
At least you were right about that.
- And what about Cal, sitting in the Brooklyn House of D
on a false confession?
- Carisi said he'll work it out with the DA.
[cell phone buzzes]
- Ah.
Well, I hope I don't have to ask for more forgiveness.
Hey.
Carisi says he'll ROR Cal Markham by end of day.
- Okay.
You want me to tell Cal the good news, or you want to?
- Well let's--let's both do it.
- And who's gonna tell Bruno and Curry
they got fed a false confession?
- You're the sergeant.
- [laughs] I'll tell Bruno,
but the last thing I need is Curry going all IAB on my ass.
- Okay.
- My client did not murder his cousin.
- And we know that. - But he did confess.
- I did, and I'd do it again.
I just wanted to find the real killer.
- And we know that, too.
- So did you find this guy?
- We're getting closer.
We got a DNA hit off her body.
- And? - We're still tracing it.
- Meanwhile, when is my client getting out of here?
- I spoke with the ADA, and the charges will be dropped.
- When? - We're working on that.
- I don't care, just as long as you find
whoever killed Gwen. Promise me that.
- I'll tell you what we can promise you,
that we're doing everything we can.
- Well, all said and done, Cal won't be able
to sue the department, not when it was his idea.
- Huh, great news.
Curry got a genealogical match off the DNA.
- How much of a match? - Thank you.
A daughter, Hanna Kincaid, 35,
lives in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
- I did that genetic test so long ago.
My husband didn't believe that I have Welsh blood.
Proved him wrong.
- Best part of any marriage.
- But what does this have to do
with a police investigation in Manhattan?
- We're looking into a series of crimes
that ended over 20 years ago.
- I don't understand.
- We have DNA evidence that you might
be a genealogical match to a person we're interested in,
a male relative.
- That's impossible.
- The person we're looking for
would be in their 60s or 70s by now.
- You know anybody in that age range?
- Just my dad. He turned 72 last month.
But my father is not a criminal.
He coached my T-ball team,
took us camping.
- What did he do for a living?
- Insurance claims adjuster.
- Let me guess, traveled a lot around the East Coast?
[tense music]
- Oh, he's a good man.
He goes to church, has grandchildren.
He's been happily married to my mother for 40 years.
Today is their anniversary. I'm headed there now.
- Where's the party?
- You ready to blow out our candles, sweetheart?
[laughter]
[inhales deeply]
[cheers]
Thank you. Thank you.
♪
- Can I help you?
What's this?
- We're looking for Richard Kincaid.
- Well, that's my husband. Who are you people?
- Manhattan SVU.
- What's going on?
- We have some questions we need to ask him.
- Where is he?
Hey!
Hey. NYPD.
Hey!
- Hands on your head.
- Do you like taking photos of young girls?
- Wh-wh--I don't know what you're talking about.
- Oh, then what's with the go bag?
Huh? Packed and ready to flee--
a stack of cash, change of clothes,
and a .357.
- Sitting here waiting all these years.
- You've been expecting us, huh?
- Richard, what's going on?
Rich--no. - I don't understand this.
I mean, why are you doing this to me?
- For Crystal and for all the other girls.
It's over, Richard.
I need you to search everywhere.
Rip this house apart if you have to.
We know that he liked to keep Polaroids as trophies.
So there's got to be a stash somewhere.
You didn't hide the Polaroids when you got married.
You hid them when she was old enough to find them.
♪
.
- So one of our dogs found this out behind your home.
This is Gwen Markham. Do you remember her?
She disappeared from a park in Manhattan.
- That photo looks like a long time ago.
- It was.
But we just found out that
your DNA matches the DNA on her body.
- A 22-year-old sample. It's degraded.
- A well-preserved sample like this,
half-life's over 500 years.
- This is Kim Dao. She went missing
while riding her scooter home from a sleepover,
Middletown, New York.
[tense music]
Peyton Freeman,
she was walking to a gas station
to buy her stepdad cigarettes.
Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
- You may have DNA in the Markham case,
but you have no genetic evidence tying my client
to any of these other cases.
- Okay, so how do you explain
the Polaroids found stashed in the woods?
- For all you know, he found them in the woods,
like the kids who found Crystal Sykes's Polaroids.
- That's right. I found them.
- You found them?
Well, aside from being
a marauder-type serial predator,
your client's a very bad liar.
- MO is the same.
Teenage girls taken.
They were alone, no witnesses, all in the Northeast.
♪
- Crystal Sykes,
she was biking to a local swimming pool.
You cut and dyed her hair.
- I remember her. - Richard,
I'd advise you to stop talking.
- He's already looking at life in prison for Gwen's murder.
And Pennsylvania has the death penalty.
- What do you want?
- I want to know where these bodies are buried.
And if you cooperate with me, then the Pennsylvania DA
will try to avoid capital punishment.
And that way you get to see your wife,
you get to see your grandchildren.
- Richard, I advise you against this.
- No.
I could live for another 20 years.
I want to see my grandkids grow up.
- Well, that's a lot more than your victims
or their families will ever have.
- I'll show you where the girls are buried--
all of them.
♪
I made the choice to kill her after finding this place--
a beautiful place for a beautiful young girl.
Peyton almost talked me out of strangling her.
My whole life had felt pretty pointless
until I started this.
These girls were so pretty, so young.
I wanted them to stay that way.
♪
[door opens]
- Hey. - Hi.
Where's the M.E.? - I asked him
to give us a minute.
- Is that her?
[soft dramatic music]
- You know, um,
if you want to be sure...
- Are you asking me for DNA?
♪
I asked you to leave it alone.
Why didn't you?
- I did it for Crystal.
- [choking up] It really hurts.
- Please tell me what I can do.
- [crying] I'm sorry.
Just give me some space for a sec.
♪
[sobbing]
[dramatic music]
♪
[wolf howls]