ROBERT CARES: The boy was probably
our only witness at that point, he was critical to this case.
[gunshots]
JEFF MIDDLETON: This is a rural area.
I could almost guarantee you would see some deer.
But it wasn't deer hunting season.
ROBIN BAKER: She had a routine
and never broke that routine.
JEFF MIDDLETON: We didn't know if she was missing
or if she was dead.
ROBERT CARES: The decision to put
him under hypnosis was made because time
was of the essence.
Blood found at the scene was determined to be human blood.
[gunshot]
ROBIN BAKER: That's when he screamed out, I'm so sorry!
I'm so sorry!
[music playing]
JEFF MIDDLETON: Colon, Michigan is a little town
on the east side of the county.
It's on the country in a rural area,
sort of a little idyllic setting far away from most everything.
(OFF) HOLLY STEPHENSON: It's a very
small community with a great deal
of-- of wooded and vacant land.
JEFF MIDDLETON: It's a beautiful place that's
in the middle of nowhere.
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: In the early summer of 1985, on an isolated
dirt track in the woods, a telephone
technician starts his day by checking poles and lines.
ROBERT CARES: He noticed something in the ground.
It was dark.
It appeared to be wet.
And he looked more closely, and he
saw what he thought were some blue jeans
just a couple inches down.
There were flies that were swirling around the area.
And he saw a flesh, which appeared
to be from a decomposing body.
He ran down and then he called the law enforcement agencies.
[sirens blaring]
NARRATOR: Local authorities
rushed their nearest detective to the scene.
ROBIN BAKER: When I got there, he took me back,
showed me the spot.
Could see the belt and skin and material.
And the smell, you smell a dead body one time,
you'll never forget it.
It was quite a shallow grave.
I could tell that the body was face down,
and that was about all.
NARRATOR: The officer calls
in the gruesome discovery, and soon crime techs
arrive to begin the exhumation.
ROBIN BAKER: Hours were spent
meticulously going through the dirt, looking for any evidence.
Exhuming this body, even as shallow as the grave
was, took a long time.
We saw that it was a white female.
- She was decomposed to such an extent
that identification was impossible at that point.
ROBIN BAKER: And the clothing
matched the highly unusual missing persons report
we had eight weeks before on the other side of the county,
and there wasn't anybody else missing.
So we figured it was that particular missing lady.
We did not know how she got there,
but we could tell she had been shot three times.
In the arm, the shoulder, and she was shot in the head.
NARRATOR: Surveying the crime scene,
investigators believe the location and depth of the grave
is significant.
It was a very shallow grave.
Must have been somebody who had been
in a hurry to bury the body.
ROBIN BAKER: The area where
the body was found was a two-track lane
that run off of Ralston Road.
And it run along the river.
You'd have to know the area, be from the area,
be hard to stumble across.
ROBERT CARES: So we knew the killer was somebody that
was familiar with this area.
ROBIN BAKER: But we had no idea who did it.
[suspenseful music]
HOLLY STEPHENSON: Three Rivers is a centrally located
town amongst Three Rivers.
Portage, the Rocky, and the St. Joe River.
If you have neighbors, you know your neighbors.
People have always felt safe in Three Rivers.
NARRATOR: The quiet community
is where a local couple falls in love
and looks forward to starting a family.
JEFF MIDDLETON: Bruce Van Buskirk was
a Three Rivers police officer.
He married Linda Jacobs.
She was a very nice girl from a very nice family.
Linda's reputation was as a strong Christian woman.
HOLLY STEPHENSON: They had two children, two little girls.
JEFF MIDDLETON: They were very
happy for a number of years.
- But the marriage didn't last long.
NARRATOR: The relationship was splintered by infidelity.
- There were some hard feelings
about the divorce.
ROBIN BAKER: They had a rough separation,
as I understand it.
JEFF MIDDLETON: And so then she was a single mom
and she was, you know, taking care of these girls
with the help of her parents.
(OFF) HOLLY STEPHENSON: Linda was
obviously in the process of putting her life back together.
And she just rented a house out in the more rural area of Three
Rivers out on Day Road.
- I was very close with the family
we met at a rural church near their community.
Linda was resilient and independent and smart.
I offered my home because I was traveling all over the country.
And when I was in that area, stayed with Linda's
parents, Paul and Evelyn.
So Linda and her girls moved into my home.
She didn't have outside the home employment.
So Linda and the girls made lemonade stand
and she baked enough loaves of bread every month to sell them.
Just astonishing how resourceful she was.
Whenever she had some time for herself,
Linda loved to go walking the trails in the area.
NARRATOR: In early spring, the 26-year-old mother
asks her parents to watch the kids and heads off on her walk.
- This was a beautiful 70 degree day,
the kind of day people go out and just enjoy being
out after being cooped up.
[suspenseful music]
HOLLY STEPHENSON: But when it got dark,
she did not reappear to pick up her children.
- She was a devoted mother.
The idea that Linda would neglect
picking up her daughters is beyond uncharacteristic.
It just would not happen.
NARRATOR: Paul and Evelyn Jacobs
phoned friends and neighbors, hoping someone
has seen their daughter.
With no sign of Linda, they contact authorities.
[phone rings]
ROBIN BAKER: March 26, we received
a complaint of a missing person out in the county.
ROBERT CARES: Everybody was very concerned because she
just, like, disappeared.
JEFF MIDDLETON: Linda had led an exemplary life.
She never had been in any trouble.
She didn't drink.
She didn't use drugs.
She was active in her church.
ROBERT CARES: It was very mysterious.
There was a real concern to find Linda.
Was really all hands on deck.
ROBIN BAKER: Her parents were very upset.
They told us what Linda was wearing
and gave us a picture of her.
They were absolutely certain that she had a walk routine.
They said she walks at a certain time
and she takes a certain route, and never broke that routine.
We went out to the area the next day.
ROBERT CARES: A large number of law enforcement
officers in canvassing.
JEFF MIDDLETON: The road she was walking on was rural.
No streetlights.
No commercial enterprises.
Farm, fields, woods, houses not very close together.
ROBIN BAKER: It turned out the neighbors
had seen Linda walk by, but they didn't
have any more information.
Then we had talked to a man that lived right near
the intersection of Day and Mt.
Zion Road.
NARRATOR: The intersection is only about a mile
and a half from Linda's house.
ROBIN BAKER: And he said the day before,
his son heard gunshots.
And the boy, he walked up on a hill a short distance
from his house.
And he looked down at the intersection.
There was a car there and there was a man putting something
in the trunk of the car.
I knew something was seriously wrong.
[squawking]
We waited to see how the ex-husband was going to react.
You give him a little rope, maybe he'll
hang himself if he's involved.
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: A mile and a half from the home
of missing 26-year-old Linda Van Buskirk,
investigators canvass the route and learn a young boy
may have witnessed something.
ROBERT CARES: Todd, the young boy,
said that he was up in the yard.
And that's when he heard gunshots.
[gunshots]
And saw the person dragging what he thought
was a deer onto the roadway and put it into a vehicle.
JEFF MIDDLETON: This is a rural area.
If you drove out there tonight, I could almost guarantee
you would see some deer.
But it wasn't deer hunting season.
ROBIN BAKER: At about 3:30,
the school bus comes through there.
ROBERT CARES: It would have corresponded, timewise,
when Linda had disappeared probably
around 4:00 in the afternoon.
JEFF MIDDLETON: The investigators took it seriously
right from the start that this could
be related to a missing person.
NARRATOR: Investigators hope, with further questioning,
10-year-old Todd might remember something
that could help find Linda.
ROBERT CARES: The young boy is very impressionable.
So he was interviewed very carefully and thoroughly.
JEFF MIDDLETON: He was an earnest little guy
that was a long ways away.
He's several hundred yards from where he was to what he saw,
but he tried to tell us what he could.
ROBIN BAKER: The boy said he
saw a man in a dark hatchback.
Looked like they were loading it in the back of the car
is what he thought.
NARRATOR: Investigators ask
Todd to bring them to the exact spot
where he saw the vehicle and the deer.
- We went out and canvassed the area.
NARRATOR: Investigators determined
Linda's walking route would have taken her
through this exact intersection.
ROBIN BAKER: We went down to where the boy said
this is where the car was at.
And about maybe 15 feet off the edge of this road,
we noticed a blood spot.
This is a significant amount of blood.
Probably about 12 to 15 inches in diameter.
But we didn't know if it was animal or human.
So we needed to get the blood tested.
We collected samples of the blood
and preserved that evidence.
Down the road from where the blood spot was--
--we found shell casings.
And it turned out that brass casing
was from the jacketed hollow point, which at the time,
was a common bullet for police officers,
but not real common for the public.
NARRATOR: The discovery of the shell casings
confirms Todd's story.
Investigators put out a county-wide alert,
hoping someone will spot the dark hatchback.
- We were focusing on the car,
and we get this information out to Three Rivers Police
Department, State Police.
We were stopping people and asked if we could take a look
in their trunk for a deer.
NARRATOR: Believing the hunter may have seen Linda,
investigators are desperate to find the man.
ROBERT CARES: Todd becomes a critical witness
at that point.
The decision to put him under hypnosis
was made because time was of the essence.
- The parents agreed.
- We knew he was probably
our only witness at that point.
He was critical to this case, and we
had to do everything we can to find out what he knew
because there was nobody else.
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: In a desperate move to find missing mother
Linda Van Buskirk, Three Rivers investigators
make the bold decision to hypnotize
a 10-year-old eyewitness.
JEFF MIDDLETON: When he was hypnotized,
Todd said that there was this struggle with a man and a woman
out on the road near his house.
[gunshot]
ROBIN BAKER: It was not a deer that was put in the trunk.
NARRATOR: The hypnosis confirms investigators' fears.
JEFF MIDDLETON: The theory was that Linda was missing
and a man had abducted her.
ROBERT CARES: The boy definitely heard some shots,
and some of the bullet fragments,
including the jacket, were found at the scene.
JEFF MIDDLETON: So now we didn't know if she was missing
or if she was dead.
NARRATOR: Investigators visit
the Jacobs' home to inform Linda's family
of the worrying developments.
- We tried to keep the family
apprised of what we knew.
Obviously, their daughter's missing
and they're very frightened.
JIM BRINEY: I was notified after the fact,
and was able to spend time with Paul and Evelyn Jacobs.
They were alarmed and terribly concerned.
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: The search for the dark hatchback
expands as neighboring counties are notified
and more people step in to help.
JEFF MIDDLETON: We brought all
the police agencies together.
The Michigan State Police involved, the St. Joseph County
Sheriff's Department involved, the Three Rivers
Police Department involved.
ROBERT CARES: And this disappearance
was very much publicized in the papers and by word of mouth.
So people were sort of on the alert for something
that might be suspicious.
ROBIN BAKER: So everybody was looking
for her and the hatchback.
JEFF MIDDLETON: They couldn't find the car.
It was just nowhere.
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: Detectives are pursuing every possible avenue,
starting with Linda's ex-husband, Three Rivers police
officer Bruce Van Buskirk.
HOLLY STEPHENSON: You had this question
mark about her ex-husband, Bruce, as a suspect.
Would he have been a part of the incident?
ROBIN BAKER: They had a rough divorce,
and then you add the fact that he was a police officer
for the city of Three Rivers and the jacketed hollow point
casings at the scene were type of ammunition
law enforcement carry.
That's definitely suspicious.
NARRATOR: Officer Van Buskirk
insists he was on patrol at the time Linda went missing.
But there's no concrete evidence to support his alibi.
ROBIN BAKER: He was still up on the list.
We never forgot him or put him on the back burner.
We just waited to see how he was going to react.
You give him a little rope, maybe he'll
hang himself if he's involved.
NARRATOR: With the young mother missing more than three
days, concern escalates when the blood report
comes back from the crime lab.
ROBERT CARES: The analysis confirmed what we suspected.
Blood found at the scene was determined to be human blood.
So that, along with what Todd saw at the intersection,
this was now a homicide investigation.
ROBIN BAKER: Now, we're in a mad search
to find the .38 or .357 gun, and it's probably law enforcement.
Every certified officer that carries a weapon,
we're going to take his weapon, take it to the crime lab,
and check for ballistics.
Trying to prove or disprove a fellow officer
is a very tough thing to do.
It'll be like trying to do it to your brother.
NARRATOR: Testing every police
issued weapon in surrounding counties could take weeks.
ROBIN BAKER: You can't take all the guns away
from the cops and then send them all to the lab,
so we do them in groups, starting with her husband,
Bruce Van Buskirk.
NARRATOR: In the meantime, investigators
hope their eyewitness can help identify
the man he saw on the road.
ROBERT CARES: Todd met with a sketch artist,
and a sketch was made.
(OFF) HOLLY STEPHENSON: A drawing
was published from the eyewitness account
of the young child, Todd.
And that was circulated locally.
Suddenly, that became the face of this evilness.
[suspenseful music]
[gunshot]
NARRATOR: 26-year-old mother Linda
Van Buskirk is still missing.
But evidence collected from the crime scene points to homicide.
[gunshot]
With the help of their 10-year-old eyewitness,
police have published a sketch of the suspect.
HOLLY STEPHENSON: The sketch became, you know,
headline news at the time.
Suddenly, everybody's more concerned.
And it puts you on guard.
It's-- it's the loss of innocence.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately, the man in the sketch
is not easily identified.
- The little boy
had given some identification, so we had a composite.
And composite pictures are terrible.
At that time, you'd lay these transparencies over and come up
with a face that never looked like anybody
that had ever existed.
NARRATOR: Though the sketch does not resemble
officer Bruce Van Buskirk, investigators
have him on their short list.
ROBIN BAKER: We focused down
on Bruce Van Buskirk because of his divorce with Linda.
There was some child custody issues.
They had a rough divorce.
There's a financial benefit in a divorce,
especially if he gets custody, and he was fighting for that.
He was a Three Rivers police officer,
and he is a firearms expert.
NARRATOR: Ballistics analysis soon
confirms the bullets found by the road
did not come from Officer Van Buskirk's gun.
It is still possible he used an unidentified gun.
But for now, there is no proof he's involved in the crime.
Investigators turn their sights to the other man
in Three Rivers who had a close relationship with Linda.
ROBIN BAKER: Jim Briney was the owner of the property
that Linda was living at.
- She was divorced.
He wasn't married.
He wasn't from Three Rivers.
Who is this guy and why is he talking to Linda Van Buskirk?
So they get him in and they treat him quite harshly.
ROBIN BAKER: We worked him over really good, verbally.
NARRATOR: Investigators are soon
able to confirm Jim's alibi.
ROBIN BAKER: We were able to make
sure he wasn't in town the day that Linda
Van Buskirk come up missing.
And so we were able to clear him.
NARRATOR: Investigators are
unable to link their short list of suspects
to Linda's disappearance and likely murder.
And there is no sign of the dark hatchback
or the man in the sketch.
ROBIN BAKER: We worked a lot of hours
for a lot of days trying to get this case solved.
Tips drifted in, but it turns out to be really nothing.
NARRATOR: Six weeks pass with no new leads,
and investigators fear Linda may never be found.
[suspenseful music]
In late spring, an urgent call comes in from a man who's
discovered something strange 16 miles
east of Three Rivers on a remote road outside the town of Colon.
- He saw the dark spot
and what appeared to be jeans.
That's when he called the Sheriff's Department.
- When the crime lab got there,
the body was exhumed.
- And they opened the ground
and the flies just came swarming out.
ROBIN BAKER: I could tell it was a white female.
The body was face down.
You could not identify her from the body buried that long.
JEFF MIDDLETON: I could see the back of her blue jeans
and I could see her wristwatch.
NARRATOR: The body is sent for an autopsy.
ROBERT CARES: A pathologist conducted
a post-mortem examination.
He was able to obtain the dental records that
made the identification that this
was in fact the body of Linda.
JEFF MIDDLETON: I actually knew her.
She was two grades behind me in school.
And it was very emotional for me.
ROBERT CARES: The autopsy ruled out sexual assault.
ROBIN BAKER: She had been shot three times,
including one time in the head.
[gunshot]
ROBERT CARES: The first bullet
that hit her was in her arm.
The second bullet was shot through her shoulder.
The final shot was on the left side of her skull
straight through the other side.
This was not something that was done
in a fit of rage or self-defense or anything else.
It was a terrible murder.
It was an execution.
[gunshot]
NARRATOR: The body of Linda Van Buskirk
has been found on a two-track dirt road outside the town
of Colon, Michigan.
Autopsy results confirm she was shot three times in what
appears to be an execution.
ROBIN BAKER: The pathologist, he says,
see the angle?
And he said, that's the angle that the shooter shot.
[gunshots]
So she was down on the ground.
He walked up and finished her off.
[gunshot]
JIM BRINEY: When Linda's body was found,
it was devastating for Paul Jacobs
and for Evelyn and Linda's daughters.
They were just profoundly devastated.
[sobbing]
NARRATOR: Determined to get justice
for Linda and her family, they focus
on the remote burial site located about
four miles outside of town.
ROBERT CARES: We knew it must have been somebody
who had been in a hurry to bury the body
because it was so shallow.
We knew it was somebody that was familiar with this area,
including two tracks that go back into some pretty
desolate spots.
NARRATOR: With very few businesses,
law enforcement is hoping someone in the tiny community
noticed something.
ROBIN BAKER: The gas station attendant's wife
in the village of Colon said that she
saw Ricky Moore in town the day that Linda
Van Buskirk come up missing.
JEFF MIDDLETON: Ricky Moore's father, Larry Moore,
was a sergeant at the Sheriff's Department.
Ricky was a reserve deputy for a minute.
ROBERT CARES: Police learn that Ricky Moore lived
with his parents in the city of Three Rivers,
not too far from the intersection
where Linda was murdered.
But they also had a cottage or cabin in Colon.
ROBIN BAKER: He was interviewed
by the Sheriff's Department a couple of times,
and he never refused.
ROBERT CARES: Ricky Moore told investigators
that he had indeed been to his parents' cabin
in Colon the night of the disappearance.
He said that he had gone there to check for a break-in.
Ricky was actually familiar with this particular area in the two
track where the body was found.
NARRATOR: Though the car does not
match the one described by eyewitness Todd Terrell,
Ricky agrees to let them search it.
But tests yield no blood in the vehicle.
Still, detectives are not ready to rule out Ricky Moore.
ROBERT CARES: With the discovery of Linda's body
near Colon and the fact that he did have access to firearms
as an auxiliary police officer, Ricky Moore
became a suspect at that point.
NARRATOR: The interview has its desired effect.
His father, Sergeant Moore, collects
him and they head home.
Keeping the heat on, investigators
are not far behind.
ROBIN BAKER: We went to the house, knocked on the door,
and we said, we're here to get the gun.
ROBERT CARES: He was very hesitant.
His demeanor changed dramatically.
ROBIN BAKER: He hem hawed around,
and then his dad got mad at him and he
said, "Get your butt upstairs.
Get that gun."
So he went upstairs and he was up there for 5 or 10 minutes.
He finally came down.
He was white as a sheet, sweating
like you can't ever imagine.
He finally gave us a gun.
When me and other Detective Sergeant
walked out of the house, we looked at each other
and said, "Did you see what I saw?"
I said, I sure did.
He said, "Get that gun to the lab today."
NARRATOR: Ricky's gun is sent to ballistics
for immediate analysis.
His resistance gives investigators cause to get
a warrant to search his home.
- They search his bedroom.
They found hollow point bullets.
ROBIN BAKER: I mean, that's just one more straw.
But doesn't prove you're a murderer.
The firearms expert told us that whoever possessed this gun
tried to damage the barrel.
Because of the things that he did to the gun,
we couldn't match the weapon.
NARRATOR: But there is the eyewitness to the crime.
Investigators ask Todd Terrell if he can identify the man
he saw on the road in a lineup.
DETECTIVE: Today's date is 5/17 of '85.
Time is 10:32.
OFFICER: All right, gentlemen.
I'm going to ask you to turn profile.
You're going to be observed by several witnesses.
JEFF MIDDLETON: We bring the boy in,
and we have him try to make an identification.
And Todd would look through this window, one-way glass.
OFFICER: Everybody, take a quarter turn to the right.
Once again, quarter turn to the right.
ROBERT CARES: Unfortunately, Todd
said he didn't see the person who
had been at the intersection in the lineup.
In fact, the sketch of the person that Todd made
didn't look like Ricky Moore at all.
JEFF MIDDLETON: But that doesn't mean he didn't see him.
It's just, well, the boy wasn't able to identify him
because he's 200 yards away.
NARRATOR: It's a disappointing blow to the case.
Investigators returned to Ricky's firearm,
hoping critical evidence can be salvaged.
If recovered, the unique lands and grooves
transferred from the barrel onto the bullet
are considered to be the gun's ballistic fingerprint.
ROBERT CARES: Investigators
continue to keep firing rounds through Ricky Moore's firearm
until it cleaned out enough that he could make a comparison.
And eventually, I got a call and he
said, "Are you sitting down?"
I sat down and he says, "I made him on the gun."
The bullets found on the scene came
from Ricky Moore's firearm.
Testing confirms the bullets recovered
from the crime scene match Ricky Moore's weapon,
eliminating other suspects.
ROBERT CARES: It was clear to us
that we had sufficient evidence to charge Ricky Moore.
ROBIN BAKER: We went to the house
and we put him in handcuffs.
NARRATOR: When he is charged with murder, though,
Ricky Moore claims he is innocent.
JEFF MIDDLETON: He said I didn't do it,
and his parents, I think, believed that he didn't do it.
And they spent a considerable sum hiring a lawyer for him.
NARRATOR: In an attempt to demonstrate his innocence,
Ricky Moore consents to a polygraph test.
ROBERT CARES: With the polygraph examiner,
the critical question was, did you kill Linda Van Buskirk?
When he said he did not kill Linda Van Buskirk,
the test indicated that Ricky Moore was lying.
When he finished, the polygraph examiner said to him,
"There's something I don't understand.
Why did you do it?"
JEFF MIDDLETON: His attorney went in there
and his dad went in there.
And I heard an animalistic wailing.
And Ricky told him what he did.
And he starts confessing.
ROBIN BAKER: I heard Ricky scream out to his dad,
"I'm so sorry!
I'm so sorry!"
NARRATOR: Investigators can
only speculate about Ricky's motive for killing Linda.
ROBIN BAKER: Most of these cases
like this are sexually motivated,
and he was kind of a loner.
JEFF MIDDLETON: He had purchased a car
from Bruce Van Buskirk, so he'd been
out to Van Buskirk's house.
And he saw her there.
The theory is that he was interested in her
and he stopped her and that he was rebuffed by her
and he killed her.
[gunshots]
[suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: Ricky Moore waives
his right to a trial by jury, and is
tried in front of a judge.
Tensions are high.
ROBERT CARES: Ricky Moore pled not
guilty by reason of insanity.
JEFF MIDDLETON: The prosecutors
sent the case and show evidence to support a conviction.
We find the body in Colon.
And he's got no firm alibi.
He's reluctant to give up the gun.
He scratches the barrel to affect
the ability to identify it.
Then that gun is matched to bullets
that killed Linda Van Buskirk.
NARRATOR: Finally, on May 13, 1986,
the judge reads the verdict.
ROBERT CARES: Judge [inaudible]
rendered his opinion of guilty in the first degree murder.
Evidence that we presented convinced him
beyond a reasonable doubt Ricky Moore was the killer
and that it was premeditated.
The sentencing for first degree murder in Michigan
is life without parole.
NARRATOR: Linda Van Buskirk was taken too soon,
but she will never be forgotten.
JIM BRINEY: I think about how
exquisitely good and beautiful she
was in every sense of the word.
That just compounds the tragedy and the horror
of the loss, Linda's life.
[music playing]