ALLISON: Back in the '80s the Sunset Strip was a scene.
NARRATOR: But beyond the bright lights of Hollywood
a predator lurks in the shadows.
DET. BALL: He would go down preying on
potential victims in the area of the Sunset Strip.
ROSALIND: He said, "Listen, bitch,
you better shut the [BLEEP] up
because I'm gonna make you walk these streets
like a whore."
NARRATOR: And when an adventurous 18-year-old
goes missing after a night on the town.
ANTHONY: We could hear the music
blasting from the club, and then she was gone,
she was literally nowhere to be seen.
NARRATOR: A city is terrorized.
DET. BALL: There was a serial killer
working around Los Angeles,
extremely violent deaths.
NARRATOR: Until a discovery
buried deep in the woods of the Hollywood Hills
sends the investigation in a frightening direction.
DET. BALL: It was quite obvious that somebody
was held against their will.
ALLISON: I mean, we all were terrified.
[***]
NARRATOR: Above the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles,
twisting canyon roads lead to posh hillside homes
offering panoramic views of the city.
DET. BALL: The Hollywood Hills area,
very upper luxury housing,
multimillion dollar residences.
These exclusive residential areas are wooded
and the wildlife is extensive.
NARRATOR: The scenic ridge also hides a tangle
of rugged hiking trails where locals and visitors
go to escape the hustle of the big city.
ALLISON: It's very, very good to hike up there.
It's not just houses and roads.
There are camps up there.
NARRATOR: In early December 1986,
a young vagabond newly arrived in Los Angeles
is hiking a wooded canyon.
ROSALIND: And he was following some kind of
animal path in the woods.
NARRATOR: With the sun beginning to set along
the secluded trail,
he stops to set up camp in the clearing.
When the hiker tries to sink a tent peg into the ground
he finds something horrifying.
Tangled with branches and dirty leaves,
he found what had to be...
unfathomable,
a skull and bones.
NARRATOR: The terrified hiker races off the hillside
to find a phone and call police
who quickly dispatched officers to the location.
DET. BALL: This particular location was situated
in a very rough, remote, wooded area.
It was steep
but halfway up the mountain
was when we discovered a campsite location.
It was a flat area that was overgrown,
had some trees around it.
It looked abandoned
but there was evidence somebody had been there in the past.
We start to reveal skeletal remains
that were partially buried in addition to being covered up.
The physical evidence that we had found included
a pair of handcuffs
that were hanging from a tree limb,
and also a rope that had been attached
to the skeletal remains,
and wrapped around the base of the tree.
It was quite obvious that it was a scenario
where somebody may have been held
against their will.
NARRATOR: The condition of the remains
indicates the body has been buried in the woods
possibly for years.
DET. BALL: There was nothing really to go on
as far as identification.
We didn't even know the gender of the victim.
We need to know what happened,
who is the person buried in a shallow grave
in a wooded area above Hollywood.
[***]
ALLISON: Back in the '80s the Sunset Strip was a scene.
What do kids do on a Friday night?
They go to the Strip.
ROSALIND: There was all kinds of people,
celebrities, partiers, groupies,
it was just a big party up and down the Strip.
AIMEE: Everyone had long hair, lots of hairspray.
The guys would even wear spandex pants.
NARRATOR: The Sunset Strip is the heart
of West Hollywood, the cooler cousin
to its neighbor, luxurious Beverly Hills.
In the 1980s the Strip is legendary
for its rock and roll music scene
wherein any number of clubs
you can hear the hottest bands in the country.
*
ANTHONY: The main three clubs on the Sunset Strip
was the Roxy,
the Whisky a Go Go,
and the Rainbow.
ALLISON: This is pre-cell phone,
you have to call your friends on the phones and say meet me
in front of the Whisky a Go Go
or meet me in front of the Rainbow,
and we'll cruise, we'll go up and down the street
and see all the characters, and all the musicians.
[***]
NARRATOR: One of LA's fun loving residents
is 18-year-old Lisa Mather,
beautiful, young, with a bubbly personality.
She's the quintessential California girl.
ROSALIND: She was very outgoing,
very loving, and trusting,
and playful at heart,
and she was very popular.
NARRATOR: A recent high school grad,
Lisa lives at home with her mom, stepdad, and brother
in the seaside community of Marina del Rey.
On weekends Lisa and her best friend Aimee
often head to the Sunset Strip
to see their favorite bands.
AIMEE: Lisa was a people person and was a free-spirit.
ROSALIND: Aimee and Lisa were friends forever,
you know, they were just tight.
AIMEE: We did feel like when we were together
we could just conquer the world.
[***]
NARRATOR: On Saturday night, January 11th,
Lisa and Aimee are ready to party.
ANTHONY: I got a call from Aimee, she said,
"Hey, it's Saturday night, let's go out,
um, I'm here with Lisa."
[***]
ANTHONY: "Can you come pick us up?"
I go "Where do you wanna go?"
"Well, of course, the Sunset Strip."
NARRATOR: But underage with no ID,
there's no way they're getting into any of the clubs.
So we were stuck listening to the music
outside on the sidewalk.
AIMEE: That night there was a construction site
right next to the Rainbow.
And there was a flatbed truck.
ANTHONY: So it's basically the size of a dance floor.
And I remember that we could hear the music
blasting from the club.
AIMEE: I was up on the truck dancing.
And when I was up there I remember seeing Lisa
talking to somebody.
[***]
AIMEE: And he had long dark hair,
and he was thin, and he was smiling.
ROSALIND: And then Aimee looked away.
And then when she looked again she didn't see Lisa.
NARRATOR: A few minutes later with music blaring
and the crowd jumping,
police break up the sidewalk party
and order the kids off the truck.
Aimee jumps to the ground and finds their friend Anthony.
AIMEE: A little while had passed
and we both looked at each other,
and said "Where's Lisa?"
ANTHONY: And Lisa was gone.
She was literally nowhere to be seen.
AIMEE: I thought maybe she just left with this guy
that she was talking to, but it didn't feel right.
Normally, Lisa wouldn't do that.
NARRATOR: Aimee and Anthony pushed their way
through the crowd desperate for any sign of Lisa.
ANTHONY: We must've searched for over an hour,
going up and down the Sunset Strip,
inside some of the clubs.
But she was gone.
There were no cell phones back then,
and we had no way to contact her,
and she had no way to contact us.
So Aimee wanted to go home and wait by the phone
to see if she would get a phone call
but Lisa never called.
[***]
NARRATOR: The next morning
Aimee is overwhelmed with dread.
AIMEE: When your friend is not with you, and
you don't know, and she didn't call my house,
it's just that sense of what's happening,
like, where is Lisa?
Is she okay?
ANTHONY: It was horrible.
Her mother called me.
She kept on asking me, "Well, where did she go?
Who do you think she went with?"
And I was completely, like, no words.
NARRATOR: Beside herself with worry
Lisa's mom calls the police
and files a missing person's report.
ALLISON: When Lisa disappeared the police
they just thought she ran away,
or she went out with some guy,
it's Sunset Strip, you know.
She probably ran off with some guy that she likes,
she'll be back in a week or who knows
but I don't think they took it very seriously.
NARRATOR: As more days passed with no sign of Lisa,
investigators acknowledged this case might be different.
DET. BALL: Lisa left a note for her parents
where she was going and what her intentions were that night.
So it didn't fit when she didn't come home and had no contact.
NARRATOR: When the police talked to Aimee,
she describes the man talking to Lisa
as tall, skinny, with long rocker hair,
a description that matches pretty much every guy
out on the Strip on a Saturday in the '80s.
But when Lisa's sister Ross hears about the man
something jogs her memory.
ROSALIND: I recalled this time a little while back
when we had gone to a party,
and there was a really mean guy there.
And he eventually ended up taking my sister and Aimee
away and leaving me alone.
So he was obviously one of the people
I definitely thought could have been involved
because it seemed like he tried to kidnap Lisa before.
ALLISON: The authorities got a tip
that there was a girl in Las Vegas
who was being held in a hotel room
and forced to be prostitute.
ROSALIND: This guy is sitting in this big wicker chair
and there are naked bodies all around and sleeping,
and doing whatever.
DET. BALL: He was asking for Lisa, and he said he had
her phone number and her name written on a matchbook
[***]
NARRATOR: After 18-year-old Lisa Mather
vanishes on Hollywood Sunset Strip
her sister thinks she might know something about
the mysterious man with whom Lisa was last seen.
Just a few weeks earlier Lisa, Ross, and Aimee
had been to a Sunset Strip after party
up in the Hollywood Hills.
ROSALIND: There was a huge big party going on,
and when it was time to leave
I found out that my purse had been stolen.
So I didn't have the keys to my car.
NARRATOR: Ross asked someone for a ride
to go find a locksmith,
and she, Lisa, and Aimee pile into the stranger's car.
But as soon as they pull away
Ross knows something isn't right.
ROSALIND: He went flying down the mountain,
and he was driving so recklessly,
and I said something to him, and he said
"Listen, bitch, you better shut the [BLEEP] up
because I am gonna make you walk these streets like a whore."
He said, "I have other business to do right now."
And we went to this other house.
NARRATOR: The man orders the terrified girls
out of the car where they're met
with a bizarre scene.
ROSALIND: This guy is sitting in this big wicker chair
and there are naked bodies all around, and sleeping,
and doing whatever.
NARRATOR: The man who drove them to the house
disappears inside for a few minutes.
ROSALIND: And Lisa and I and Aimee were just waiting,
and then he came back and he said to me
"Let's go but I'm just taking you."
NARRATOR: Not knowing what else to do
Ross leaves Lisa and Aimee at the house
and accepts the ride and as soon as
she's dropped off on a street corner,
she calls the police.
ROSALIND: I said "Some guy
has my sister and her friend,
and I believe that they're being held now
against their will, they've just been kidnapped
as far as I'm concerned."
NARRATOR: Patrol officers rushed to Ross's location
and she directs them to the house in the hills.
AIMEE: So we're sitting there trying to be cool,
and there's a knock on the door.
And it's the police, and they have rifles.
And they have everyone put their hands up.
Then they say, "Okay. Who is Aimee and Lisa?"
And we're just, like, "Here." Kind of embarrassed.
ROSALIND: They were like, "You just killed our chances of
ever getting invited to a party again."
I'm like, "Yeah, but I don't know
what was gonna happen to you."
NARRATOR: When the beat cops
questioned the owners of the house,
they find nothing illegal
has actually taken place,
and take the three girls back to Ross's car.
With Lisa now missing for more than a week,
Ross wonders if someone from their terrifying experience
at the house party might be behind Lisa's disappearance.
ROSALIND: It was very creepy, and I don't think
it was that far removed
from the time that she went missing.
NARRATOR: Ross tells her story to the police,
but with her concern for her sister growing,
she doesn't wanna wait until they have a chance
to check it out.
ROSALIND: I went by myself to all of those houses
that I had been with them at,
and tried to talk to anybody that would talk to me
about this, and if they remembered my sister,
if they remembered what happened,
and nobody said anything,
nobody gave me any clue that they knew anything.
Nobody knew his name.
And that was that.
NARRATOR: When the police follow up,
they don't find any connection between the after party
and Lisa's disappearance either.
Meanwhile, Lisa's mother tries to help the police
drum up leads.
ROSALIND: My mom put up a lot of missing persons flyers,
trying to do her best to--
to keep, uh, it alive.
ANTHONY: They were posting flyers
all over the Sunset Strip and Hollywood area,
um, "Missing: Lisa, have you seen her?"
DET. BALL: She was dedicating her entire life
to finding her daughter.
AIMEE: We are feeling worried and we were feeling lost.
NARRATOR: But just as despair starts to set in,
a glimmer of hope appears.
The authorities got a tip that there was a girl in Las Vegas
who was being held in a hotel room
and forced to be a prostitute.
DET. BALL: And she was matching
the physical description of Lisa.
NARRATOR: Investigators quickly head to Vegas
to follow-up on the tip.
DET. BALL: Their follow-up investigation included, uh,
identifying that particular individual,
as a 15-year-old runaway from Wyoming,
and had nothing to do with Lisa, didn't know her,
and hadn't seen her in that capacity at all.
NARRATOR: The tip is a bust,
leaving both Lisa's family and the police
again wondering where she is,
and if she's okay.
ROSALIND: My mother broke down a lot,
and she was distraught,
and she just didn't know where to turn.
ALLISON: You're hoping your daughter's alive,
you're hoping someone's gonna come forward.
NARRATOR: Then...
almost a month after Lisa's disappearance,
her mother gets an odd phone call
that offers new hope.
ALLISON: Betty got a phone call,
and this man's voice asked, "Is Lisa there?"
Now, I'm sure her heart dropped,
"Does this person know that my daughter's missing,
or is this person in on it?"
And then he hung up.
[***]
NARRATOR: Still shaken from the strange caller,
Betty is startled when moments later,
the phone rings again.
DET. BALL: He was asking for Lisa,
and he said he had her phone number,
uh, and her name written on a matchbook
[***]
NARRATOR: Several weeks after Lisa Mather vanishes
from the Sunset Strip, a man calls her mother,
claiming to have found a matchbook in his van
with Lisa's name and number written on it.
ROSALIND: He said his van was stolen
from somewhere around Sunset,
right around the same time that my sister went missing.
NARRATOR: Investigators quickly locate the van owner
and bring him in for questioning.
DET. BALL: During the follow-up investigation,
it turned out that the van had actually been stolen
in a, uh, location very close to
where Lisa Mather had been last seen.
NARRATOR: A few weeks later, the man says
he recovered his stolen van.
ALLISON: He said he had found a matchbook
with her name on it in his van.
DET. BALL: And he was interested in
finding the information about who stole his van.
NARRATOR: While they search for confirmation of his story,
investigators take his van in for processing,
hoping there might be something in it that can lead to Lisa.
ALLISON: They ended up searching this van, tore it apart.
There was no blood, there was no trace of her.
There was nothing there.
NARRATOR: When detectives get the records
of all recent auto theft reports,
it confirms the van owner's story.
DET. BALL: The detectives found that
he did have an alibi for where he was
during the missing time periods of Lisa.
NARRATOR: But the detectives still wanna know
why was Lisa's name and number
in that matchbook inside that van?
ANTHONY: Maybe as she was giving out the number,
she got thrown in the van,
and that's why she didn't tell she was leaving.
NARRATOR: It's the closest thing
police have to a clue at the moment.
This is at least a lead.
The matchbook had a logo.
But no address.
NARRATOR: Without a business name,
investigators don't even know where to begin looking.
The matchbook could have come from anywhere.
Then, a stroke of luck
solves the mystery for them.
DET. BALL: The way that the detectives
ultimately discovered the source of the matchbook
was through happenstance.
Lisa Mather's stepfather
was driving down a street,
saw the logo matching the logo on the matchbook,
and identified the location.
It was a restaurant in the Marina del Rey area.
NARRATOR: It's located just a few miles from Lisa's home.
Detectives head to the restaurant,
hoping someone there might have seen Lisa
or the man she was last seen with
on the Sunset Strip.
DET. BALL: They did an extensive follow-up
at the restaurant, uh, attempting
to identify any further witnesses
who may have seen or had contact with Lisa.
They've shown a picture of Lisa around,
but nothing, dead end.
[***]
NARRATOR: For Lisa's family and friends,
news of another dead end lead
is hard to bear.
It was destroying my mother.
I mean, she could hardly talk about it,
even to me.
And I tried to encourage her to just hang on,
and it was just very, very, very, very hard for my mom.
Very hard.
NARRATOR: Days soon turn into weeks,
then months with still no word from Lisa.
Anytime an unidentified teenage girl
turns up in the morgue,
Lisa's family holds their breath.
DET. BALL: The missing person's detectives
would follow up on
any reported missing
or, uh, located Jane Does
to see if there's a possible match.
I can only imagine being Lisa's mother,
not knowing when there was a Jane Doe,
is this gonna be it?
Could this be my daughter?
That had to be the most terrifying part of all.
ROSALIND: My mom went to
different kinds of spiritualists
and psychics, and--
and all kinds of things
to try to get some information.
She was just grasping after any straw that she could,
looking for any kind of help.
NARRATOR: But that help simply doesn't come.
It was a very frustrating situation
for both the victims and the detectives.
There were a lot of dead ends.
You can only take it so far,
and you need a break in the case.
NARRATOR: As the spring and summer of 1985 passed,
a frightening new possibility presents itself.
[***]
DET. BALL: Richard Ramirez was a very active,
uh, serial killer in the city of Los Angeles,
uh, striking fear and terror
in the hearts of every Los Angeleno.
NARRATOR: Known as the Night Stalker,
Ramirez was responsible
for at least 13 murders and multiple rapes.
He was finally arrested in August 1985,
seven months after Lisa vanished.
Yeah. Big deal.
Death always went with the territory.
NARRATOR: When his terror spree ends,
investigators are forced to consider
whether beautiful young Lisa
could have been one of his first victims.
ALLISON: Nobody knew what happened to her,
just that she had disappeared.
Could it be Richard Ramirez?
DET. BALL: He would go down, preying on potential victims.
He would entice them to join him at houses of celebrities.
He was one of those people that you would see and wonder,
[***]
NARRATOR: Seven months after Lisa Mather's
mysterious disappearance in Los Angeles,
detectives are looking for possible connections
to notorious serial killer, Richard Ramirez,
known as the Night Stalker,
who has just been apprehended.
It was a big news, the Night Stalker case.
But that was, you know, months after
Lisa had disappeared.
There was not anyone in the city of Los Angeles
that was not terrified, including myself.
There hadn't been a serial killer,
uh, working around Los Angeles in quite some time
in that fashion, extremely violent deaths.
NARRATOR: Now the question on everyone's mind,
was Lisa an early victim of the Night Stalker?
ALLISON: I grew up with Ramirez,
thinking that he was gonna come through my window,
and for Lisa's mother,
when you hear Richard Ramirez is running around,
wouldn't that go through your mind?
I mean, we all were terrified.
NARRATOR: The detectives compare everything
they've learned about Lisa Mather's disappearance
with the facts emerging about the Night Stalker.
DET. BALL: His MO is, he would enter the residences
during the evening as a hot proud burglar at times
and confront the victims,
and kill the victims inside their own homes.
NARRATOR: But Richard Ramirez didn't abduct any of his victims
off the street, and police can find nothing
to indicate he was ever active around the Sunset Strip area.
DET. BALL: We didn't believe Richard Ramirez
was a primary avenue to pursue
in Lisa Mather's case.
NARRATOR: With no sign of Lisa, dead or alive,
her family is left waiting for answers once again.
It was hard. It was just so, so hard.
We just never stopped looking,
you know, we never stopped believing,
we never stopped praying,
we never stopped trying to find her.
[***]
NARRATOR: Then, in December of 1986,
a man hiking in the peaceful hills
above the wild Sunset Strip
makes a terrifying discovery.
[***]
ROSALIND: He found a skeleton
and you wanna semi-believe
that maybe that's your loved one.
I mean, you hope it's not,
but you still, in a way, hope it is,
to at least to find her.
DET. BALL: When we conducted the preliminary investigation
of the scene,
there was evidence of a tent,
there was evidence that
somebody had been living there in the past.
We had found a pair of handcuffs hanging from a tree limb.
And a rope tied to the tree.
We started to find fabric fibers.
We started to find hair fibers.
NARRATOR: In 1986, DNA testing is in its infancy,
but with the degraded condition of the crime scene,
finding useful samples or even fingerprints
is unlikely.
DET. BALL: These were very difficult cases,
um, when you're dealing with skeletal remains.
You don't have the luxury of the obvious pieces
of evidence being found at a "normal crime scene."
There was nothing, really, to go on,
as far as identification, et cetera.
So we had to rely on the services
of the coroner's office
to start identifying our victim.
NARRATOR: When they compared dental records,
investigators get a definitive match.
DET. BALL: The coroner's report in their findings
identified the victim to be Lisa Mather.
NARRATOR: Almost two years after Lisa disappeared,
her family receives the news they've been dreading.
All this time, Lisa has been high above the Sunset Strip
buried in the woods.
ROSALIND: It was the worst outcome we could hope for.
And all of us were grieving in our own way.
Not really understanding anything,
you know, really what happened.
AIMEE: I really was afraid to hear the details.
And the horrors of what she experienced.
DET. BALL: The coroner's office was unable to determine
the method of death.
Through further examination of the bones,
there was no further evidence that led towards
any specific weapon being involved either.
NARRATOR: Even without a cause of death,
homicide investigators searched
for any similar crimes in the area
across the stretch of two years.
It's slow, painstaking work.
DET. BALL: The computer systems were not that
of today's law enforcement.
It was much different in that day.
We had a stroke of luck with this particular case
involving fellow detectives at North Hollywood.
And when we had discovered the remains of a female
found on the hillside and the location,
the detective in charge of the rape detail
at North Hollywood...
notified us that they had a serial rapist
in that specific location, in the Coldwater Canyon
that had been captured and arrested,
uh, and prosecuted.
[***]
ANTHONY: When they talked to the rape victims,
they found out that it was the same exact location
where they were raped and where they found Lisa's remains.
[***]
NARRATOR: Police in Los Angeles have identified
a potential suspect in the murder
of teenager Lisa Mather,
whose remains were found buried in the woods
in the Hollywood Hills.
They've learned that a man who was a fixture
on the Sunset Strip
is a rapist convicted of two violent attacks.
DET. BALL: Edmund Matthews called himself "The Count"
and he would dress up in a black cape
and oftentimes wear a hat, um,
and considered himself somebody,
uh, that wasn't average or normal.
ALLISON: The Count was one of those people
that you would see and wonder is he a good guy or a bad guy?
They sort of blend into this menagerie of characters,
you know, in Los Angeles.
ANTHONY: What I heard was he had a way with words
and he was very, um, flamboyant,
um, he was a charmer.
He would tell women that he was a rocker
and that he knew a lot of people.
He knew Nancy Sinatra,
he knew a lot of celebrities.
DET. BALL: Matthews met the girls
in the area of the Sunset Strip.
He would go down preying
on potential victims.
He would entice them to join him
at the houses of celebrities and have some fun.
And that would lure them into the area
until it was too late for them to turn back.
NARRATOR: Police learned the area he lured them to
is the same location
where the hiker discovered Lisa's remains.
DET. BALL: One of the rape victims
in October of 1984
met the suspect on the Sunset Strip
with the intention of, um,
going to an after-hours party at a celebrity's home.
Once she realized that
she had been taken to a remote area,
she struggled but was overcome by the suspect
who had taken her to the campsite area.
Ultimately handcuffed her and sexually assault her.
NARRATOR: The second attack occurred two months later
in December 1984,
just two weeks before Lisa vanished.
DET. BALL: The second rape victim had also met Matthews
in the Sunset Strip area
near the Rainbow Club.
And ultimately was taken to the campsite with Matthews
becoming extremely violent and forcing rape upon her.
At this time, Matthews also produced a machete
and threatened to dismember the victim at that rape.
So the incidents of the rapes
seemed to have increased in violence.
[***]
NARRATOR: Both of the rape victims were allowed
to walk away after the attacks,
and reported them to the police.
They each described the same rapist
and the same remote location in the woods.
Police began hunting for him near the site of the incidents.
And soon spotted him.
DET. BALL: January 28th, 1985,
Edmund Matthews he was arrested for the rapes
in Coldwater Canyon above Hollywood.
That was approximately 16 days after Lisa Mather
had been reported missing.
NARRATOR: Now nearly two years later,
detectives take a closer look at his arrest.
When they hear the details,
Lisa's family is heartbroken to realize
what a missed opportunity it was.
They found him coming down the hill
in Coldwater Canyon
with a lantern and a shovel.
And they arrested him.
I don't know what they thought when they saw him
coming down the hill, but for some reason,
they did not go back up to the place
where the ladies had been raped.
NARRATOR: Had the officers searched
Edmund Matthews' campsite
after arresting him in 1985,
they would've found Lisa's freshly-buried body
and prevented almost two years of anguished uncertainty.
DET. BALL: These were uniformed officers
that were looking for a specific suspect.
And once they found their suspect,
their interest became that of arresting
the person wanted for those rapes.
They didn't know there'd been a recent murder.
There's no indication of what this guy was doing with a shovel
and/or a lantern at the time of his arrest,
even though later it's pretty obvious
he was just leaving the scene
where Lisa Mather was buried.
Of course, putting the pieces together years later,
it's pretty unnerving realizing
what had happened at that time.
[***]
NARRATOR: Now homicide detectives need to prove
that Edmund Matthews was there on the Sunset Strip
the night Lisa vanished.
There were photographs shown to
Lisa Mather's friends, Anthony and Aimee.
AIMEE: I remember the person she was looking at,
she was looking up, and he had long, dark hair,
and was thin.
ANTHONY: They showed me six mug shots.
Even though it had been a few years,
I was able to pick him out at a, uh, on the photograph.
DET. BALL: They were able to identify Edmund Matthews
as matching the description
of the suspect that was talking to Lisa.
At that time, Edmund Matthews became a prime suspect
for the murder of Lisa Mather.
NARRATOR: But there's no forensic proof he killed her.
All detectives have is circumstantial evidence.
They realized their only shot at a conviction
is to get a confession.
Detectives head to the California prison
where The Count is serving out
his 10-year sentence for rape.
DET. BALL: We advised him of his rights
and he was very quiet.
He was not arrogant whatsoever.
He said he didn't recall any woman
that he had known by the name of Lisa Mather.
It wasn't until we actually showed him a picture
of Lisa.
He was turning his head away from the picture,
not wanting to take a look at it.
That was when he started
to discuss the case with us at all.
He admitted picking Lisa Mather up off of the Strip,
uh, in front of the Whisky a Go Go area.
NARRATOR: He claims Lisa went with him willingly,
eager for a night of fun.
But what he says next stuns detectives.
DET. BALL: He broke down.
He said he'd thought he had killed somebody.
And it was an accident.
[***]
NARRATOR: Homicide detectives investigating the murder
of 18-year-old Lisa Mather
pressed their prime suspect, Edmund Matthews,
for details about the night Lisa went missing.
DET. BALL: He said there was a school very close by
that they went swimming together in the pool of the school.
And that they had some consensual sex at that location.
And then he said that he had taken her
up to his location
at the campsite on the hillside.
When they got to that location,
he continued sexual activity with Lisa
and supplied specifics of,
uh, some things that they had actually done.
Matthews said that it was a consensual activity
of both her being tied to a tree
and engaging in sexual intercourse with her
at that time.
Matthews stated that when he tied Lisa to the tree,
she had slipped, lost her balance,
and had fallen down,
and that the rope had gone around her neck.
He didn't know what to do
and he tried to untie her
and was unable to untie her.
He said, "I'd been drinking too much."
And he said that her death
was an accidental death.
[***]
NARRATOR: He tells the investigators
that he panicked and fled.
DET. BALL: At some point, he returned to the scene,
then he partially buried the body,
but still was unable to untie the rope from the tree.
NARRATOR: It was just a short time later
that police officers spotted him coming down a road
in Coldwater Canyon
with a lantern and shovel in hand,
and arrested him for the rapes of two other women.
DET. BALL: From talking with Betty Mather
and from talking to the additional rape victims,
there's no indication whatsoever
that Lisa would've accompanied him
voluntarily up to that crime scene.
Things just didn't fit.
When he described the manner
in which he tied her to the tree,
it didn't fit with what we had found.
The rope was tied at the very base of the tree.
It's impossible for her to have been standing.
What the physical evidence showed
was that Lisa was most likely
laying on her back
and she had been tied at the neck
to the base of the tree.
From the evidence, it's more likely that there was
a strangulation involved.
ROSALIND: He roped her up, tied her to a tree,
did terrible things to her.
She tried to get away,
and she was murdered.
ANTHONY: She probably did put up a fight and that's why
she didn't survive like the other two women.
DET. BALL: On December 9th, 1986,
Edmund Matthews was indicted
for the crime of Lisa Mather's death.
Just two years shy of her reported missing.
NARRATOR: When the trial finally gets underway
in January 1991,
Edmund Matthews sticks to the story
that Lisa Mather's death was an unfortunate accident.
After a 38-day trial,
it doesn't take long for jurors
to come to their own conclusion.
DET. BALL: Valentine's Day, 1991.
The jury came back, um, with the conviction
of first degree murder
including special circumstances
for the murder of Lisa Mather.
NARRATOR: Though justice is served,
for Lisa's friends and family,
the pain of her loss has taken a heavy toll.
ROSALIND: My mom never came to peace about it.
She died of a broken heart.
It was just too much to lose your baby.
NARRATOR: As time passes, Lisa's loved ones do their best
to hold onto their precious memories of her.
ANTHONY: She was a beautiful girl.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
AIMEE: The years, uh, I did know her, were
the most amazing life-changing years.
And still affect me in who I am today.
But I wish I could just go back and, like,
hold her hand that night and say,
"We're sticking together and we're not separating."
He took away a beautiful girl
who could've had anything in life.
She was so bright.
Her life counted
and she wasn't given the opportunity to live.
And to see what a difference she would've made in this world.
She would've made a difference.
[***]