- We watched from behind the fence
as they load two blue tarps in the back of a wagon.
I can only assume that's my mom and dad.
[thunder rumbling]
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: All the rivers
were out of their banks, roadways flooded.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: This wasn't
just a normal disappearance.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Somebody's
trying to cover up evidence.
This was foul play.
He didn't know the difference between company
money and personal money.
- You know, he didn't help search.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Holy crap!
He really is involved in this.
[music playing]
MIKE LEWIS: Bonn Terre is a
quaint little rural community.
It's a wonderful place to grow up,
very resilient, very loving, very caring people.
And everybody knows everybody.
People enjoy the scenery and picturesque views.
NARRATOR: But on September 16, 1994,
the normally tranquil setting is teeming with law enforcement.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: In September of '93,
when an elderly couple went missing,
we received just torrential rains that day.
There was historical flooding.
After the storms, there's still absolutely
no sign of them whatsoever.
It had been close to a year.
That's very frustrating for us as investigators
to not be able to give someone the answers that we know
are out there.
NARRATOR: A year after the disappearance,
a tip has led police to a small, unassuming farm.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: The location
was a well-kept property, a small house.
Kept yard, everything was neat.
MELISSA GILLIAM: There's a barn by an abandoned horse run.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: We discovered
a small, flat pile of manure, straw, kind of elongated
and spread out.
NARRATOR: Working on information from the tip,
investigators focus their efforts on the manure pile.
WILLIAM CONWAY: They removed all the manure
and got down to clean ground.
And then they grid that off with strings and stakes.
And then it's a painstaking excavation, taking
a little bit of dirt at a time.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: I remember
the tarp being removed from the grave, from the ground.
And then, you know, of course what we found inside,
it was two bodies badly decomposed.
They were wrapped together in a tarp.
It was not a pretty sight.
Not-- not something that, you know,
you want to describe to the family.
WILLIAM CONWAY: When you find human remains,
bodies in some of these backyard,
you have to ask yourself, what happened to this couple?
Why would someone choose this backyard as a location
to dispose of the bodies?
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: Life in Bonne Terre,
Missouri, is a vision of times gone by.
MIKE LEWIS: It's a church-going town.
There's a Catholic Church, Methodist
Church, and Baptist Church.
Really, really good people.
NARRATOR: Among the town's faithful
are retirees Charles and Grace Lewis.
MIKE LEWIS: My parents were really
pillars of the community.
My dad was very heavily involved in church.
My mom, of course, was his sidekick.
He didn't go anywhere without her.
NARRATOR: Together, Charles and Grace
raised eight children.
- We were raised up in the St.
Louis general metro area.
After my grandmother died in 1973,
my parents decided to take over the family farm
and move down here.
By the time when we first moved down to Bonne Terre,
three of my brothers have passed and my brother Chuck was grown.
So when we were moving down, it was myself, my three
sisters, my mom and dad.
My father was an accountant for a firm called Stephen
Nicholas in downtown St. Louis.
NARRATOR: For over a decade,
Charles commutes daily to St. Louis,
all the while helping Grace and the kids
care for the large property.
MIKE LEWIS: We had 400 acres, but most of it
was left heavily wooded.
It had three springs and two creeks that ran through it.
We ran roughly anywhere between 20 and 30 head of cattle.
NARRATOR: Life in Bonne Terre
is idyllic for the Lewis family.
When Charles is home from work, the kids all pitch in to bail
hay and feed the cattle.
MIKE LEWIS: Every Sunday, after we went to church,
we went down the creek to a little place
we call Bathtub Falls.
And there, we'd build a fire, and the kids--
we'd all go swimming.
I treasure those moments.
NARRATOR: By the early 1990s,
the children are all grown.
Charles and Grace, now in their early 60s,
have settled into an active retirement.
MIKE LEWIS: My dad was always in the garden,
taking care of that and the hay and things
to help feed the cattle.
NARRATOR: Making use of his accounting background,
Charles Lewis also keeps the books at a family
business run by his children.
MIKE LEWIS: My brother Chuck had a data
storage business concept.
He got some investors, including my father, involved.
And I came in in 1986.
My sister Mary worked in the same facility.
And over time, the business grew, you know,
was doing very well.
[thunder rumbling]
NARRATOR: In September 1993,
Southern Missouri braces for violent weather.
MIKE LEWIS: We've seen the news that a storm is coming.
At the time, nobody really knew the severity of it,
so you just assume it's going to be another thunderstorm.
NARRATOR: But the rains don't stop.
And the next afternoon, the Lewis siblings
get worrying news.
MIKE LEWIS: It was actually
my sister Susan who first realized something was wrong.
My parents had made plans to actually
visit her that afternoon and take her shopping.
They didn't show up and she really got concerned.
So we called, no answer.
Call, no answer.
I said, so I'm going to drive down there.
My sister Mary said, I'm going with you.
On the way out the door, I said, you
know what, I'm gonna call the Bonne Terre Police
and have them do a wellness check.
NARRATOR: As the skies darken,
Mike and Mary arrive at the farm.
MIKE LEWIS: We didn't see the truck, so that was odd.
And we just saw the lawnmower sitting by the hay
bales, which--
we're like, why in the world isn't
the lawn mower in the barn with the rest of the equipment?
We went up to the door and it didn't open right away.
That's weird.
My parents generally didn't lock the doors.
We walked around back, and we actually jimmied the back lock
to get in the back door.
NARRATOR: Inside, things are stranger still.
Mike and Mary find a full pot of beans still on the stove.
- Of course, we're calling like crazy,
you know.
We're yelling out, Mom!
Dad! Mom!
Dad!
And no answer.
And we started thinking, OK, well, it's
because Dad decided he had to go check on a cow or something
like that, took the truck out there
to the back part of the farm.
Mom went with him, and something happened.
As we began to search the farm, it began
raining harder and harder.
And with the storms, I mean, the creeks
went up over both bridges which are on the farm.
I told my sister Mary, I said, we're gonna
have to get back to the house.
We had to get in, you know, before the floodwaters cut
us off.
NARRATOR: Hurrying back to the farmhouse,
the worried siblings call friends and neighbors.
- Then we see a car driving up the road,
and we're like, they're back.
Wherever they were, they're back.
It wasn't them.
It was local police department.
Your heart just sinks.
[radio chatter]
His radios just start squawking.
I mean, because now this is the storm of the century.
People are in trouble.
Roads are flooded.
Volunteer fire department having to go out and do rescues.
NARRATOR: With the waters rising,
there is no option but to abandon
the search for the night.
- Are they flooded downstream somewhere?
Maybe my dad had gotten the truck stuck
out in the field somewhere.
Or mom was hurt and they just couldn't get back to a phone.
You still cling to that hope that they're
actually alive somewhere.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: This wasn't
just a normal disappearance.
(ON) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: He didn't
know the difference between company
money and personal money.
- Will they send out trained cadaver dogs?
That hits you.
NARRATOR: Charles and Grace Lewis
have gone missing from their 400-acre farm
in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
[thunder rumbling]
MIKE LEWIS: There was a historic--
and I do mean a historic--
storm.
(ON) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: All the rivers
were out of their banks.
The roadways flooded, people trapped in vehicles.
That complicated things considerably
when the Lewises went missing.
- Once the water went up,
we couldn't access the back part of the farm.
We had to wait for the creek to go down before the Sheriff
could come out.
NARRATOR: It's an agonizing two-day wait
before investigators and family members
can conduct a thorough search of the Lewis property.
(ON) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: A 400-acre farm
is quite a bit of land.
And it's not just open fields, you know.
You have wooded areas.
We had tracking dogs, people on horseback.
We really pulled out stops and launched the search for them
and found nothing.
So the lead investigator then turned his focus
on the inside of the house.
MIKE LEWIS: Dinner was starting to be prepared.
You had not all the groceries fully unpacked.
Police, obviously, tell you right away,
make a list of things that are missing.
There is dust all around where the VCR sat,
but the VCR is gone.
My mom's purse was on the table and it had
cash still in it, which is odd.
OK, well, if you're gonna rob somebody, take the cash.
WILLIAM CONWAY: There were a lot
of items in the house that could have been stolen
that, if somebody was stealing something,
they should have taken as opposed to this little VCR.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Why would
the Lewises leave her purse on the kitchen table
but take a VCR?
- It was strange.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: We got the Lewis's pickup truck
entered into the state computer system as involved
with a missing persons case.
So if anybody did run across it, we'd be notified.
Then we had to get as much background information on
the Lewises as we possibly can.
Who is their family?
Who's their friends?
Where do they go?
NARRATOR: The last person to speak with the Lewis
couple was their daughter Mary.
MIKE LEWIS: My sister Mary said she
was on the phone with my mom.
And my mom said, oh, I got to go, I hear gunshots.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Gunshots in a rural area
are not unusual.
[gunshot]
So Mary didn't worry about it.
MIKE LEWIS: My mom probably
thought my dad had saw a snake and was killing a snake.
NARRATOR: Now that her parents have vanished,
Mary wonders whether there might be another explanation
for the gunshots.
But neither Mary's phone call nor the odd findings
in the house give investigators a clear idea where
the Lewises might have gone.
WILLIAM CONWAY: There was a discussion
that they may have been out and, because of the flooding,
got washed away.
There's always this hope that they are still alive.
MIKE LEWIS: Three or four days
after my parents had gone missing, the storms subsided,
water's down.
So a massive grid search started.
Because of the flood, we actually
went up searching several local tributaries just in case,
you know, washed down the creek somewhere.
NARRATOR: The search and rescue operation
stretches on over a week.
MIKE LEWIS: There were cadaver dogs at this point.
They figure, after a week, you're
not looking for live people.
So they send out trained cadaver dogs.
That hits you.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: You know they
just didn't vanish into thin air.
The question is, where-- where did they go?
At this point, we're taking any lead we can get.
Now we're getting into October.
And in Missouri, October and November is deer season.
The deer hunters are out in force, which
we're looking at that as--
as a good thing.
MIKE LEWIS: We developed a flyer.
And we asked people, as they were
out scouting for their deer or turkey,
to keep their eyes open.
NARRATOR: Just over a month after the disappearance,
a call comes in.
Something has been found in the woods
31 miles from the Lewis farm.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Just as we had hoped,
a gentleman that was out looking for deer signs
in a very remote wooded area stumbled across a vehicle.
[suspenseful music]
When they ran that plate number through this plate computer
system, they got a hit that that truck belonged
to Charles and Grace Lewis.
When investigators descended upon the location of the truck,
the truck had been burned.
At this point, they've secured the vehicle, taken
it to a secure location, went through it
with a fine-tooth comb.
Unfortunately, they found nothing.
The fact that the truck was in such a remote area, the fact
that it was burned, that speaks volumes.
That tells us somebody is trying to cover up evidence.
That kind of forced us to go back and take
a look from the beginning.
What have we missed?
WILLIAM CONWAY: Because of the burnt truck,
it was clear that-- that this wasn't just
a normal disappearance and this most likely
was a homicide investigation.
earch for Charles
and Grace Lewis, Sheriff's investigators
have found the missing couple's truck
burned beyond recognition.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: When investigators saw its burnt out
condition, it was very obvious this
is foul play and the Lewises are probably dead.
MIKE LEWIS: When we got a call that they had
found the truck, I felt sick.
We still don't know where they are.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: As with in any case,
you're looking for a motive.
- Well, at first when
you think somebody's just missing,
everybody's on your side.
But eventually, the gossip and the whispers start.
Well, I hear that he was gonna inherit the whole farm.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: The children
that we dealt with in the Lewis family were the oldest three.
It was Charles Jr.--
went by Chuck--
Mike, and Mary.
- Investigators became aware
that there had been some infighting
within the family of the Lewises due to a family business.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Chuck had started
a business called Data Safe.
There were other family members, including Mike and Mary,
who owned stock in it, as well as two or three other people
who were non-family members.
Chuck was the president, ran the company.
His father, who was a retired accountant,
took care of the books.
The company was in the process--
they were looking at selling it.
But there were some disagreements about how
that was gonna happen.
MIKE LEWIS: There had been discussion
about selling the company.
In fact, at least one offer had come through,
and my brother Chuck basically sabotaged that.
Chuck and my dad got into some type of argument.
WILLIAM CONWAY: During the interviews with the family,
Mike and Mary were pointing their finger
at Chuck, who was denying any involvement with his
parents' disappearance.
But we really don't know who to believe and who not to.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: There came a point in time
where the three children were asked to take polygraphs,
and they all agreed to do so.
WILLIAM CONWAY: All of the family members
that were tested--
examined on a polygraph were truthful,
with the exception of Chuck.
His test was inconclusive.
Chuck was suffering from Lyme's disease.
Because of that, he had some involuntary muscle movement
which just would cause you to have really
terrible polygraph charts.
NARRATOR: The limited results
have investigators looking for answers
in the long-brewing family conflict.
Mike and Mary share that a family
tragedy years earlier had opened a rift
between Chuck and their father.
WILLIAM CONWAY: John Stephen Lewis
was one of the Lewis children who was deceased at the time
that we opened this investigation.
NARRATOR: In 1973, Charles and Gracie Lewis
were away on a family trip.
John Stephen, a teenager at the time, was left home alone.
MIKE LEWIS: I was very young,
but I still remember the call coming in.
Turns out, my brother John Stephen was found deceased
and decayed in one of the bedrooms in the house.
NARRATOR: It's a devastating tragedy.
The autopsy listed the manner of death as undetermined.
MIKE LEWIS: It turns out that John
Stephen had been arrested some months before for drugs.
WILLIAM CONWAY: In the investigation report
at the time, there was indications, actually
from Grace Lewis, that John Stephen claimed he owed money
for a drug dealer and that he was afraid
that the drug dealer might give him a hot shot,
overdose him and kill him.
MIKE LEWIS: My brother, Chuck, was Steve's dealer.
WILLIAM CONWAY: The Lewis family did
suspect Chuck in John's death.
MIKE LEWIS: My brother John
Stephen's passing was a huge, huge wedge
with my brother and dad.
A lot of animosity was there.
[suspenseful music]
WILLIAM CONWAY: Chuck, apparently,
had been involved in drugs as well.
But apparently, from the investigation,
he was not in contact with John when John died.
NARRATOR: John Stephen's death
is only the beginning of a deep conflict
within the Lewis family.
Investigators look into the ongoing issues
at Data Safe Storage.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: According to the family,
Charles Jr. didn't know the difference between company
money and personal money.
Three weeks prior to the Lewises going missing,
they had a board meeting.
And Charles was told he was either gonna step down
or the company was gonna be dissolved
because of the finances.
MIKE LEWIS: My dad had laid into Chuck
and told Chuck at this board meeting, he said,
we'll just fire you.
You won't be president anymore.
Strangely enough, which was very rare for my brother,
he said OK.
That's it.
For Chuck to just say OK and be quiet,
it was very, very unusual.
Then some three weeks later, my parents are missing.
NARRATOR: Investigators searching for Charles and Grace
Lewis believe the couple's disappearance
may be related to a conflict over a family business.
WILLIAM CONWAY: After we learned
that Charles Jr., Chuck, was living basically
on the company, Charles Sr. was becoming
concerned about the money and the cash flow for the company.
And so Chuck's father was really putting
a stop to his lifestyle.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: You have
to look at who stands to gain.
Or in some cases, who stands to lose.
And in this case, it was more about who stood to lose.
And that was Charles Jr.
- Because of his Lyme's disease,
physically, Chuck would not have been
able to have caused the disappearance of his
family personally.
- They were starting to put together
a working theory that Charles Jr. hired someone
to get rid of his parents.
MELISSA GILLIAM: And so they obtained a search warrant
or subpoena for Charles Jr.'s financial records
in order to look into his business dealings.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: The things we're looking
for is a large transaction.
You know, money being moved from one account to another.
WILLIAM CONWAY: But there was no indication that there
was any money missing anywhere.
We interviewed Chuck's acquaintances,
but there was nothing that came up in those interviews.
- For someone who we thought
was looking so good as a suspect,
we were finding nothing to back that up.
Of course, it's very frustrating at times.
Very frustrating.
NARRATOR: Police turn to the media,
hoping to generate new leads.
WILLIAM CONWAY: National media coverage
resulted in phone calls coming in from a lot
of different sources that had to all be tracked down.
NARRATOR: In May of 1994, a call
comes in from a man in St. Louis,
whose detailed tip catches investigators' attention.
The caller has concerns about his daughter's boyfriend,
16-year-old Brent Rousan
WILLIAM CONWAY: We were able to locate this person.
He initially said that Brent did make statements to his daughter
that his father was involved in the Lewises' disappearance.
But Brent also made a lot of statements
which were just not true.
He fabricated a lot of stories.
NARRATOR: It seems that Brent's story about his father
may be yet another fabrication.
- Brent himself, when I talked to him,
admitted that he made up this story about the Lewises
to impress some other boys and to look like he
was a tough guy as well.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: When you go home at night,
you can't help but think about it.
You know, what am I missing here?
What is there that I haven't seen, that I haven't found?
WILLIAM CONWAY: Up to this point,
all the leads that we've gotten have
just not produced anything.
NARRATOR: In June of 1994, nine months
into the investigation, a nearby law
enforcement agency reports a recent spate of violent crimes.
- We received information
that some people had been burglarizing
the homes of elderly people across the state of Missouri,
and they were stealing jewelry, food items, and electronics.
This was an elderly couple.
Electronics were missing from the house.
At that point, this was probably one of the best leads
that we had had.
It actually fit the circumstances.
NARRATOR: Investigators soon received word
that authorities in Cape Girardeau, Missouri,
have made an arrest.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: In July 1994,
two suspects were arrested for these burglaries.
And the investigators determined that there was electronics
stored in a storage facility in Tennessee, which was in
fact searched.
But we were not able to locate our stolen VCR.
The investigators determined that they had been disposing
of a lot of their electronics through pawnshops
and flea market-type sales.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: We did
know that it was a particular model VCR.
It had been discontinued, which now
kind of made that a unique piece of evidence.
Initially, we were afraid that if we put that out there,
the person who had the VCR might dump it
and that it would be lost.
WILLIAM CONWAY: So now we thought, well, maybe our VCR
now was in the possession of an innocent purchaser that
didn't know the connection.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: So it was decided that we
were gonna make that public.
And it was made public in a big way.
Fliers were made.
It was put out to the media.
And that paid off.
WILLIAM CONWAY: On September 15, 1994,
an unknown individual had called the Potosi Police Department,
making a statement that the people we were looking for
lived on Pine Creek Road.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: We had hoped for this.
Now we had it big time.
NARRATOR: Investigators in Bonne Terre,
Missouri, are almost a year into the hunt for missing seniors
Charles and Grace Lewis.
And a vague tip has told police that the people responsible
lived on Pine Creek Road.
The anonymous call is traced to the local residence
of Bruce and Barbara Williams.
- Bruce and Barb both deny
making the phone call that day.
However, Bruce agrees to go with us
to make a complete statement.
Bruce comes in, we sit down.
He admits that he, in fact, did make that phone call.
And at this point in time, we realize that this
is all dealing with the VCR.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Bruce indicates
that he was given the VCR by his brother-in-law,
with the caveat--
don't pawn this VCR.
Don't sell it.
But he'd found himself in a position where
he needed the money, so he took the VCR to the pawn shop
and pawned it.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Once this wanted poster came out,
he was afraid that he was gonna be connected to the murder.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Bruce
relates that he received the VCR from his
brother-in-law, Robert.
WILLIAM CONWAY: So at this point, we bring Robert in.
Robert initially says that he got this VCR
from somebody at a flea market.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: He's saying he knows nothing,
but he's feeling that pressure and the story
starts to come out
WILLIAM CONWAY: When Robert first
identifies Brent Rousan, it's like, OK,
we've already talked to Brent.
Now, holy crap, he really is involved in this.
Robert's initial statements were that he thought they were
going there to steal cattle.
However, something had went wrong during the theft.
According to Robert, Willie was the one that planned
and orchestrated this event.
[sirens blaring]
NARRATOR: Investigators head to William's home
to make contact.
But news of Robert's conversation with police
seems to have spooked him.
MELISSA GILLIAM: William Rousan had gone on the run,
and so a manhunt had to be started to get him.
[sirens blaring]
NARRATOR: Although William is in the wind,
investigators are able to locate his 17-year-old son Brent.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Brent originally, when he was brought
into custody, says that he was with his girlfriend
at their prom the day that the Lewises disappeared.
But the prom occurred two or three
nights after the disappearance, so he had no alibi.
NARRATOR: Robert Rousan says
that he can offer evidence to corroborate
his version of events.
- Robert agreed--
after his confession and as part of his cooperation,
he had drawn a map and shown us where the bodies were buried.
MELISSA GILLIAM: Robert took them to a farm
on the edge of Bonne Terre.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: According to Robert,
they left the Lewis farm with the Lewis bodies
in the back of the truck.
They drove to William's girlfriend's residence
in rural Washington County.
It was there that they dug the grave in the barn lot.
[suspenseful music]
[birds chirping]
MIKE LEWIS: It's coming up on almost a year now,
and I get a call from Sergeant Conway, the state police.
He says, we're pretty sure we know
where your parents' bodies are.
I mean, my heart is just racing.
We watch from behind the fence as they load two blue tarps
in the back of a, uh, wagon.
I can only assume it's my mom and dad.
[somber music]
WILLIAM CONWAY: As a result of the autopsy recovery
of dentures and glasses, we were able to match those
to Grace and Charles Lewis.
They determined that Grace had been shot four
times, resulting in her death.
And Charles had been shot five times, resulting in his death.
There's a little bit of a sense of relief
because we've been able to give the family some closure.
But this investigation still has a long ways to go.
CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: The hunt is on for William,
but William's nowhere to be found.
It seems like he's just disappeared, until we receive
a call from Bruce Williams.
Bruce Williams is the one that pawned the stolen VCR.
He had been contacted by William.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Willie was hiding out in a vacant farm
property nearby.
So he was armed.
Multiple uniformed officers went to the area
and were able to take him into custody.
Willie, initially when interviewed,
says that he met the Lewis family in 1989
because he had escaped from jail and was
hiding out on their property.
According to Willie, Mr. Lewis gave him
$20 to kind of get him started.
NARRATOR: Investigators want
to know, if the Lewis's had already been kind and generous,
why had he hurt them?
WILLIAM CONWAY: Willie tells us during his interviews
that he was being paid $7,500 by Chuck--
Charles Jr.-- to kill his family.
NARRATOR: Investigators on the case of Charles and Grace
Lewis have a killer in custody.
He says that the couple's son, Chuck Jr.,
had paid him $7,500 to murder his parents.
(OFF) WILLIAM CONWAY: Willie says
he had a meeting through some mysterious drug
dealer out of Texas that connected him and Chuck Jr.
- Investigators, their interests
piqued even further.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Willie was not able to tell
us where this $7,500 went.
We weren't able to identify this mysterious third person.
We had our narcotics unit involved
in trying to locate him.
No luck whatsoever.
Then that story changes and he tells us
that he wasn't paid anything.
In other points, he says Chuck gave him
$100 at the initial meeting with a promise to pay more later on.
From the initial point, Chuck had
been a suspect in this case.
There was issues with the family.
There was issues with the business.
But when we looked at Chuck, we weren't able to find anything
to actually indicate that he would
have caused the disappearance or the murder of his family.
It just sounded like a good story, but none of it
could be substantiated.
The closest to reality was that Willie, Brent, and Robert
Rousan went there to steal cattle,
and it just went bad from there.
- William had worked in the area.
He knew that Charles and Grace had cattle.
He knew they were there alone.
And he knew they were in a fairly remote location.
So it was almost a perfect setup to steal cattle.
MELISSA GILLIAM: Robert Rousan pled guilty to murder
in the second degree and received
15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
NARRATOR: Both William Rousan and his son
Brent are given jury trials.
- Robert was willing to testify to
his participation in the crime.
And he walks the court through exactly what happened.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: Robert,
William, and Brent hid in a wooded area
and observed the farm.
William had brought along a .22 caliber rifle.
Brent was supposed to wait for Robert and William
to secure the house.
But Charles spotted Brent and things changed considerably.
[suspenseful music]
[gunshots]
NARRATOR: Inside the house,
Grace overhears the commotion.
MIKE LEWIS: My mom really just wanted to check
on the love of her life and make sure that, you know, he was OK,
which turns out he wasn't.
WILLIAM CONWAY: Grace come out the door and was shot.
[gunshot]
She was not dead.
(OFF) CAPT. GREG ARMSTRONG: And William
tells Brent, "Finish her off."
To which, at that point, he shot her in the head.
[gunshot]
They roll the bodies up in a tarp
and hide them behind a shed.
And then they proceed with the cleanup.
[suspenseful music]
They return later.
And it's at that point that they went in and took the VCR
and left the scene.
WILLIAM CONWAY: At this point,
they brought with them a trailer to steal cattle.
And they load the two bodies and the two head of cattle
that they're gonna steal and they leave.
They go back to where Willie was living.
And then they bury the bodies in this hole in the backyard.
[suspenseful music]
The night of the murder, it stormed really bad.
There was some local flash flooding.
And so that also, in retrospect, caused a lot
of evidence to be washed away.
A couple of days after the Lewises' murder
and the theft of the cattle, Willie
sold the two head of cattle at a livestock auction for $1,040.
Both William and his son Brent were convicted of two
counts of first degree murder.
Brent was given a life sentence.
And William was sentenced to be executed.
[wind blowing]
MIKE LEWIS: I was so hit with just a flood of emotions
like you can't believe.
Out of all the couples I've ever met in my life,
I've never seen anybody with a love
like they had for each other.
Never ever.
I-- I cherished it, and I miss them.
I want to remember them for the faith that they had,
for the love that they showed me and others how to give back
and share with other people.
That's how I remember them.
[music playing]