I don't remember what they said to me...
Something a parent never, never wants to hear.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss her,
that I wish things could have been different, that I question
myself, that I wished I would have done this,
or I would have done that, or maybe if.
You know?
Portland police are warning
that young girls and women living and walking the streets
are even more vulnerable than usual.
We didn't know what we were looking for.
We were looking for a serial killer.
So do you look for a hunter?
All three women found dead in Forest.
Park fit that profile.
There's a purpose.
There's a mission.
He's the predator, and that's the prey.
It's scary to think how, you know,
one little act or one little thing
can change your whole life, you know?
I could not wrap my mind around, why me?
Why am I the one that got away?
I was going to make sure that I was worth it...
You know, I was worth saving.
A life.
About two days before you contacted me,
I looked at my husband, and I...
And I said out loud, I think it's probably
about time I tell my story.
It was winter time, 1992.
I am seven months pregnant.
I'm coming home from work.
There are no buses running.
And a car pulls over in a parking lot.
The driver rolls down the window and asked
if I need a ride home.
No.
No, thank you.
You sure?
It's really no problem.
And he just seemed like the nicest,
you know, nerdy, harmless guy.
And it's like, I'm tired.
My feet are swollen.
I see two car seats in the back seat.
You know, I just... OK, sure.
We probably went five blocks, and it went badly very quickly.
The doors locked.
He had a knife.
And you could feel the rage.
He was very nervous, very freaked out.
And he rear-ended another car.
These two gentlemen got out of their car.
And I thought yes, here it is.
Here is my savior.
And then he sped off.
And I am just thinking, oh my god,
this guy is going to kill me.
I'm going to die in this car.
He drove me out in the middle of kind of nowhere
on this dirt road.
And I remember thinking my baby wasn't going to be born.
That's what just kicked in those survival skills.
I just began putting my fingerprints everywhere.
And I started looking at everything in the car
and memorizing everything.
And I just started acting like I liked him...
You know, saying I can tell you're a nice guy.
You know, what's wrong in your life?
It's going to be all OK.
But then he tried to put a belt around my neck.
He continuously raped me.
SHELLY HARDING:
When he finished assaulting me, he started crying.
And I told him it was OK...
Don't worry, I wasn't going to tell anybody.
I promise you.
That if he just took me back to where he found me.
And he did.
Once that car door opened, and that air hit me,
and my foot hit the concrete, then I knew I was getting away.
I guess what struck me about Shelly
was that she kept her composure through the whole thing.
She didn't quit.
She didn't give up.
Thank you very much for meeting me.
She was a survivor.
And together we decided that we were going to catch this guy.
The hit-and-run obviously became very important.
A couple of guys were rear-ended,
and they jotted a license plate number down.
And so when I got the case, a traffic officer
had already came up with the name of Todd Reed, who
was the registered owner of the car that had struck these guys.
Due to Shelly's efforts leaving evidence behind,
everything matched up.
And so we arrested Todd on the rape.
Alex did not call me on Mother's Day.
It was really unlike her.
She was living on the street, and she
wouldn't tell me where she was.
But she would call to tell me she was OK.
And she always told me she loved me...
Always.
Alex was a tiny, petite girl, beautiful.
She had a talent for writing.
And funny... yeah, we had a lot of laughs together.
Alex was 12 when she started running away.
She didn't want to go to school because some of the kids
would make fun of her because she was different.
It started with shorter periods of time.
Sometimes she'd be gone a day or a couple of days.
And then it got longer and longer.
It was really hard.
It was really hard, and it was really worrisome
because she was so young.
And there's just so many crazies out there,
and things that happen to kids.
It made me sick to my stomach
when I heard that she was using heroin.
And we had quite a conversation about that.
I often told her, I don't want to read
about you in the newspaper.
I want you to get help.
That afternoon the detective showed up at my house.
That was my worst fear had come true.
My head felt like it had exploded.
And it's beyond anything I've ever experienced.
You know, I was used to being a very strong personality.
You know, the girl that always wore the lampshade at parties.
You know, the funny girl, the life of the party.
And all that went away...
All of the self-confidence and the self-assurance.
I tried to block out that pain, tried
to block out those memories.
And that's when substances became a problem for me.
I had this child then that I could not take care
of because I was so screwed up.
You know, I can't tell you a worse feeling
when somebody is not going to trust
you alone with your own child.
And so I did my best to become that piece of dirt
that they saw and said that I was.
And my life went downhill very fast.
You go into downtown cities and you'll
see the, like, crazy girl walking down
the street with no shoes on and talking
to herself like... that was me.
I was that girl that you'd cross the street, believe me.
- I. - First met Lilla...
We were in rehab together.
And at first I didn't like her, and she bugged me.
But in the end, we became very close.
And she became somebody that...
That I really loved and genuinely cared about.
She just had a smile and a laugh that was infectious.
When you're homeless, you feel like gum on somebody's shoe,
you know?
But when I picture Lilla, there were times when
we forgot where we were at.
We were just being silly...
Not engulfed in that pain and that other stuff.
I don't remember the exact circumstances,
but she hasn't came home in like a week.
Then another week goes by.
No word from her, and I knew something bad had happened.
I just knew it.
On the news they said they had found a body in Forest Park.
NEWSCASTER: In early May,
hikers discovered the bodies of Lilla.
Moler and Stephanie Russell.
I was at home listening to the news
when the first two girls had been discovered.
And I had a sinking feeling wondering where Alex was.
I was absolutely terrified.
I called and filed a missing persons report.
I was on a mission.
I had to find her.
And I didn't know where to look.
The next morning they had found a third person in the park.
And that afternoon, the detectives
showed up at my house.
And when they showed up I knew exactly why they were there.
I don't remember what they said to me...
Something a parent never, never wants to hear.
That was my worst fear had come true.
That was my baby.
She was 17 years old.
When you get more than one body that's...
You're going to start thinking is do we
have a serial killer going on?
Our victims were prostitutes, drug users, fringe dwellers.
They're living their life, they're
doing the best they can, and then this evil...
Or whatever you want to call it... shows up and takes them.
So our job is to hold him responsible for the desecration
of a human life.
And we spent a lot of nights out just driving around Portland,
talking to women on the street.
They were all worried about their own lives
because there was somebody killing people just like them.
Somebody was hunting them.
Hikers in Forest.
Park discovered the bodies of Lilla.
Moler and Stephanie Russell.
The body of Alexandra Ison was found in early June.
At the time when she died, I wanted
to know everything I possibly could
about what happened to her.
I was trying to see if it was really real.
Because it didn't feel real.
Nothing felt real.
I read the police reports, and I asked for a copy
of the autopsy report.
I asked to see the crime scene photos.
I needed a visual of her face.
I needed to know that that was really her
and they hadn't made this huge mistake.
Three bodies, no end in sight.
We don't know what started it, what's going to stop it.
The supervisors in the homicide detail
requested that we form a task force.
The three victims that we had...
People involved in drugs, people involved in prostitution...
It is a real close community.
And I needed a window into that lifestyle
to see what people in the community
were saying about these three women who had been killed.
One day at a friend's house...
The phone rings.
It's for me.
And on the other end is Detective Schlegel
saying are you aware of...
That girls have been disappearing?
And I said, yeah, and, you know, let him know how one of them
was my friend.
He asked me to, like, vouch for him,
to let people know that they could talk to him,
that he didn't care if they, you know, had warrants
or what they were doing in their life,
that he just wanted to figure out
what was happening to these girls to catch the person.
And so I did.
And he just treated me with respect and with empathy.
And he was the first person in a long time that I could trust.
Portland police are warning
that young girls and women living and walking the streets
are even more vulnerable than usual.
We were looking for a serial killer.
So what do you look for?
Our working theory was that the killer was picking these women
up in high vice areas, somehow getting them into his car,
and then driving to a secluded spot.
And I guess that's what we were looking for was a hunter.
So we... just like fishing, you put some bait out there
and see if the guy comes along and takes a nibble at it.
Test, test 1, 2.
We knew a female police officer that worked
in drug and vice division.
And we put her out on the street with undercover police
officers.
She was approached by a guy in a car.
Hi.
Something felt weird to her about it.
So we cruised around the area trying to find this car.
We find it a block away from our decoy.
And he's parked in such a manner that we
can see her on the opposite side of the street.
Normal people, if they're going to look at somebody,
they'll do this.
They'll sit in eyesight from you and look at you.
A hunter wants to observe without being seen.
He's the predator, and that's the prey.
I was thinking, my god, we solved it.
This is it. This is going to be the guy.
And we're four or five feet apart.
And his back of his head's to me.
And as we drove past, I looked inside.
And the hair on the back of my neck went up.
The.
I'm sitting in a restaurant with a friend
of mine, and I look up, and it's almost
like in a Christmas story.
You know, where the ghosts of Christmas past come in,
or whatever.
And you almost wonder, like, is that what I really saw?
Did I hallucinate that?
And I looked at my friend, and I said that guy
- tried to kill me one time. - Hey!
Hey, you!
And I just started chasing him out of the restaurant,
screaming you tried to kill me.
You tried to kill me!
Hey, come back here!
Hey!
And he got in the car.
And he just looked straight forward
like... saying, you know, like I was just some crazy person.
And I really felt like I had been duped.
The police, and the judges, and the whole judicial system...
I didn't matter.
I was hoping for that... yeah, a little
longer sentence on the rape.
He actually ended up being sentenced to 12 years
and served 3.
Don't tell me that.
What comes to your mind
when you see Todd after all these years?
Well with me, I get angry.
The first night we run the decoy mission,
and we're four or five feet apart.
And his back of his head's to me.
And as we drove past, I looked inside.
And there was Todd Reed.
I mean, it was just a...
Like a bell going off, a siren going off.
Circumstantially, it's a pretty cosmic coincidental moment.
We needed evidence to convict him.
We'd gotten DNA samples off the victims.
We run it through our database to see
if it popped up with a name.
At the time it was a pretty slow process.
So we kept on him 24 hours a day until we got the DNA tests back
that positively identified that his DNA had been found
at the scenes up in Forest Park.
Employees at Rinella's Produce in southeast
Portland can't believe their coworker, Todd Reed,
is an alleged serial killer.
Police showed up and arrested him.
This certainly does not ease the pain felt by the families.
Nor does this diminish the loss of Stephanie,
Lilla, or Alexandria.
I think I was still in so much grief
that I really didn't have time to focus on Todd Alan
Reed other than the hatred that I felt toward him
for what he had done.
What I remember from her memorial service
is there were hundreds of people there,
and I had never felt so much love, and acceptance,
and compassion as I did that day that I
went to that memorial service.
There were a lot of street kids there at her service.
And my whole attitude changed because I
saw the love they had for her.
We decided we'd contact Shelly, tell
her that we'd arrested Todd.
She was incarcerated at the time.
And we were walking into the big open day room area.
She walked up to me, and she goes, you got him didn't you?
I said, yeah.
And I said, what's the person's name?
And he said, Todd Alan Reed.
And... and I felt like I shot out of my skin.
I mean, I never felt shock like that before.
And I could not wrap my mind around...
Why me?
Why am I the one that got away?
Because so many other women didn't.
The jury hears what you have to say.
I just remember him saying look, I need you to help me.
We need to put this guy away.
And I can't do it if you're all messed up.
He gave me her business card.
And he said, you're going to go here,
and you're going to talk this lady.
Call.
I had tried to make changes so many times.
And it never worked.
It never stuck because I just couldn't
handle the thoughts, the feelings,
and I just wanted my mind to stop.
And I wanted to die.
But I felt a responsibility to Lilla and knowing
exactly what she went through.
And then I got pissed.
And I was not going to let my story
end there, dead in a ditch.
I was going to do whatever it took to put him away.
I haven't read this in a long time.
It says, my name is Michelle Kotoff Harding.
I am the only known survivor of the defendant.
What I want you to know is on that horrible night he
continuously raped me and tried to take my life.
I was seven months pregnant.
He had no regard for my life and the innocent life
of my unborn child.
Since the attack I've had to be hospitalized too many times
to count for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
I'm terrified of the dark, and I have to sleep with the lights
on.
This is something that I'll carry
with me the rest of my life.
And I looked at him straight in the eye,
and I said, but through it all I take
great satisfaction knowing that you are going to burn in hell.
And I got up and I left.
I'll always have a special place in my heart for Shelly.
I was forever grateful for her coming forward and testifying
at his sentencing.
I felt like that was a very brave and courageous
thing for her to do.
And when it came my turn to make a statement,
I looked him in the eye.
And he looked at me...
No expression and didn't even blink when I told
him what he had stolen from me.
I've been retired 10 years.
There were things that I saw that I
didn't want to see anymore.
I can't imagine the feeling of losing a child
in a situation like that.
The aftermath of these things for the families
and the victims, they're going to leave scars.
I don't know that you ever get over it.
You just deal one day at a time.
Dear Dave, Hi.
Yes, it's me.
I wanted to make sure that you know
how much I appreciate your friendship
and compassion over the years.
If it wasn't for you, I don't think I would
have made it through all this.
I'd probably be out there, messed up even worse,
instead of here.
That's pretty nice.
This is me.
And this is Dave Schlegel.
And it's very important that he was there.
Because I wouldn't have been here without him.
I would have never got to be this girl.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here...
Because I just remember sitting at bus stops.
Like it being cold and not having on the right clothes.
And I can still remember watching cars go by
and thinking, I want to be that person.
And seeing those moms with their babies in the back
and thinking, I want to be that person.
Like, I want to be anybody but me, you know.
And may your days be good and long on earth.
And Arthur, you may kiss the bride.
Dave Schlegel, he was that one cheerleader,
that one person that believed in me.
I hope that he knows that he saved my life.
I can say this happened 18 years ago,
but it still affects my life today.
All of my children have struggled with Alex's loss.
My youngest daughter started having
panic attacks at 11 years old.
My son got into his addiction.
My other son just kind of went into a depression.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her.
I love her to pieces.
And I miss her terribly.
These memories are so cherished because it's
all I have of her is memories.
For those days when I really struggled and life seemed too
much, I would tell myself, you know,
Lilla doesn't get this chance.
I just hope you know that... How much you mattered.
There's not many days that go by that I don't forget
I'm not supposed to be here.
I miss you.
And I hope that you're proud of me.
While Stephanie and Alexandria, they didn't get their do-over.
They didn't get their second chance.
And I did.
And so I would want to make them proud also.