[Pamela] Some utility workers find a body.
I was just shocked.
[Slav speaking]
[Pamela] She had been meeting with contractors,
was planning on remodeling her home.
[Julia] He tied her with zip ties.
[John] Forces Mindy into her car.
There's an individual in dark clothing
that gets out of the driver's seat.
[Pamela] He has a bandana pulled up.
They had dated for a long time.
How dare you move onto someone else?
[John] And now she's terrified.
[Pamela] If we don't find her before it snows,
we are not gonna find her, possibly, ever.
[narrator] Every day in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
They key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case,
detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline,
the minutes and hours containing evidence
that can help unlock the mystery and catch the killer.
Anchorage, Alaska's most populated city
in America's most northern state.
Anchorage is a very vibrant city.
[Julia] Anchorage is kind of a place that,
one you live here,
it's really hard to live elsewhere
without missing the natural environment.
It's just stunningly beautiful.
[narrator] But that beauty can hide a darker, more threatening side.
[John] It's a remote place.
It's so far from the Lower 48
that no one's gonna chase most criminals here.
So we do have a very dangerous element.
[narrator] On August sixth, 2007,
a resident feels that danger
and reaches out to police for help.
[narrator] The frightened caller identifies herself as Gerri Yett.
She hasn't heard from her friend,
52-year-old Mindy Schloss.
[Pamela] Gerri Yett is concerned
because Mindy's been missing
and out of touch for the past two days.
[narrator] Mindy is a nurse practitioner.
[Pamela] She traveled to remote villages
and brought care to the underserved communities in Alaska.
Gerri had been asked by Mindy to take care of her cat
while Mindy made a work trip up to Fairbanks.
Gerri said she noticed that the door handle was a little bit loose
and she noticed that things just didn't look
the way that they normally do in Mindy's house.
[Pamela] Gerri said Mindy would never leave
unpaid bills on the table.
She was worried there had likely been
some kind of foul play.
[narrator] Now police have to determine
whether Gerri's fear is justified
or if she's overreacting
to Mindy's absence of just two days.
Detective Pam Perreneud is assigned the case.
When I get to the residence,
I meet up with Gerri.
I take a look around.
Didn't look out of order to me at all when I was in the home.
I don't see any sign
that the home was forced into by anyone
and I don't see any sign of struggle.
[narrator] And no sign that Mindy was robbed.
I look for anything that looks like it had been taken.
Mindy has a lot of Alaskan artefacts.
I notice all of those things are there.
In my thinking,
probably, somebody didn't come in here to burglarize the home
because all of these expensive items
would be easily taken by somebody
are still here.
[narrator] But Gerri informs Detective Perreneud
that there is something significant missing,
Mindy's car.
[Slav speaking]
[Pamela] And Gerri tells me Mindy didn't arrive
for her scheduled work in Fairbanks, Alaska.
I'm starting to think that something isn't quite right here.
And Gerri showed me Mindy's bed.
We see that the bed is made perfectly.
It's got military corners on it
and she just said it was definitely not made by her friend.
It is so valuable
to have a friend know their friend's habit
and can easily pick on things that may be out of place
or things that they wouldn't have done
that investigators wouldn't know.
[narrator] For police to determine
if anything out of the ordinary happened to Mindy,
they first need to learn what Mindy's ordinary life looked like
while living alone in Anchorage.
[Julia] Mindy Schloss is somebody
who lived in Alaska for a long time.
She moved to Alaska in 1980 from Syracuse, New York.
[Pamela] She was a kind, caring, compassionate,
responsible member of society.
She worked her entire career
as a public health nurse.
The Alaska wilderness was like heaven for her.
She loved to pick berries and make pies.
[narrator] Given Mindy's love of the forest
and the vast wilderness,
perhaps she ventured into unfamiliar territory
and couldn't find her way out.
I'm thinking, possibly,
Mindy had gotten into her car
and gone out in the woods berry picking
and maybe she got lost, maybe she got hurt.
[Pamela] And, looking at pictures,
I see that Mindy has a unique necklace
and she also has a gold watch on her wrist.
[narrator] Anchorage police declare Mindy Schloss a missing person
and distribute pictures of her and her vehicle.
Teams search for her in the surrounding woods
and keep an eye out for her vehicle
which she may have left at a trailhead.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Anchorage search teams
are very experienced at finding lost hikers.
And since Mindy's been missing for just two days,
their chances are still high of finding her alive.
Back at Mindy's house,
detectives try to track Mindy's whereabouts by other means.
[Pamela] I wanted to find Mindy's bank information
because I know from previous investigations that
that is one way to easily track a victim.
[narrator] Police don't find it,
but they do find a stash of Mindy's old purses and wallets.
In one purse,
there was a wallet that was empty
except for a small piece of paper
that had four numbers on it.
[Slav speaking]
I made a note of that PIN number
and held onto the piece of paper as evidence.
[narrator] With this information,
Detective Perreneud and her team
will attempt to piece together Mindy's whereabouts
in the lead-up to her disappearance.
[Pamela] We know that Mindy went missing
sometime between August fourth and August seventh.
Mindy was supposed to leave Anchorage on August sixth,
arrive in Fairbanks and start seeing patients on August seventh.
So, with the information about Mindy's bank account,
we do a bank trace.
[John] It shows a $500 withdrawal
from Mindy's account on August the fifth.
And then, on August sixth,
another $500 is withdrawn from Mindy's account
from a different ATM.
[narrator] Both withdrawals are within several miles of Mindy's home.
So the question is did Mindy make those withdrawals,
or did someone else?
[Pamela] We talked to the bank
where the withdrawals were made
and we were able to get video
of the person that was using Mindy's ATM card.
[narrator] And that person is clearly not Mindy.
[Pamela] We see a man
who looks to be in his 20s.
He looked like he had a muscular build.
He was average height.
[Julia] And a black, puffy jacket
with a ball cap
and a bandana around his face.
We see him go into the ATM area
and then uses Mindy's card
to make a $500 withdrawal from her account,
which was the maximum that could be withdrawn,
and leaves.
[narrator] The ATM video leads detectives
to one terrifying conclusion.
Mindy has been robbed
and probably murdered for her money.
[narrator] Detectives believe this man is likely responsible,
but who is he?
And when he pulls the bandana back up,
we see that there's a small tattoo on his finger.
[narrator] Whoever this masked man is,
he may have kidnapped Mindy from her home.
When we're searching the residence,
there's really not much evidence there.
There's no sign of a cleanup.
There's no blood.
There's no sign of a struggle.
We do find a pubic hair
lifted from the carpet
in the living room of Mindy's home.
[narrator] The lab reveals that the hairs were not from Mindy
but from a Caucasian man.
Could it be from the same man with the tattoo
captured on bank cameras?
And that's not all the team finds in Mindy's bedroom.
[Pamela] Those are oftentimes used to restrain people
when somebody's committing a crime.
[narrator] Detective Perreneud now suspects
the perpetrator likely tied Mindy up
and then killed her elsewhere.
Investigators know that most murders
are committed by someone known to the victim.
Mindy has no family that lives in Anchorage.
They all live out of state.
So I go back to Mindy's friend Gerri
and I ask her if there is anybody that she can think of
that would wanna hurt Mindy.
[narrator] A man named Bob Conway.
Gerri told me that, recently,
Mindy had broken the relationship off
and had started dating new people.
[narrator] Detective Perreneud now wonders,
is it possible that Mindy's ex-boyfriend Bob
was triggered by jealousy?
That could be something that is extremely aggravating to him.
Like, "How dare you move onto someone else?"
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Nurse Practitioner Mindy Schloss
has been missing from her Anchorage, Alaska, home for three days
and feared dead.
Detectives believe someone close to her may be responsible,
her ex-boyfriend, Bob Conway.
Recent exes are always prime suspects.
[Pamela] When I talked to Bob
and asked him about his relationship with Mindy,
he tells me that they did have a long-standing relationship
and, recently,
Mindy had broken the relationship off.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Bob also claims he has a solid alibi.
[Pamela] Bob claims that, at the time that Mindy disappeared,
he was in Juneau, Alaska, working,
which is hundreds of miles away from Anchorage.
[narrator] But was Bob actually there when he says he was?
[Pamela] When I checked with his employer,
at the time that Mindy disappeared,
the employer showed that he was actually in Juneau.
So, at this point, Bob is no longer a suspect.
[narrator] With Mindy's ex-boyfriend ruled out,
the team canvasses Mindy's neighbors for possible new leads.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] That is, until the occupants of a house
right beside Mindy's moved in.
[Pamela] The home is known as the "party house"
and we find out that there was a large party
at the home on August third.
[narrator] That's the same night Mindy Schloss likely went missing.
Witnesses indicate that there was about 25 to 50 people
that were coming and going all hours of the night.
[Pamela] Every neighbor complained about that party.
[narrator] Since Mindy lived right next door,
maybe she confronted drunk residents
in the wee hours to shut it down
and the exchange at the party house turned ugly.
[Pamela] I go up to the house and I knocked.
Nobody answers.
I look in the windows. Nobody answers.
So I go to the house
that is next to the party house.
I knock on the door.
[Pamela] It's obvious that she's uneasy.
She keeps looking around.
She tells me, "No, I really don't know the people that live there."
You know, "I have to go to work.
I'm kind of running late."
It seems as if she wants me to go away.
She just doesn't wanna talk to me anymore.
But I give her my business card
and tell her, if she thinks of anything else,
to please give me a call.
[narrator] With no leads from Mindy's neighbors on her disappearance,
investigators sift through paperwork
they collected the day before from Mindy's home.
One of the contractors met with Mindy at her home on August third.
[narrator] The same day as the party,
when police suspect Mindy went missing.
[John] The contractor may be the last person who had seen Mindy
before her disappearance.
[narrator] Detectives reach out to Susan
to find out what she might know
about the contractor's meeting with Mindy.
[narrator] Is it possible the contractor's verbal assaults
escalated into physical violence?
A contractor would also have knowledge of the property,
knowledge of the occupant's routines
and, perhaps, even access to the home,
a garage code, a house key.
So, police would want to look into this contractor
and his background.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Detectives want to hear the story
this abusive, ex-con contractor has to tell.
[Slav speaking]
This contractor says that he believes
Mindy was trying to lowball him.
He confirms they actually got into an argument
and he was upset
but denies that he did anything to her.
[narrator] But detectives need to be sure
and they have one way to find out.
[Slav speaking]
He was asked for a DNA sample
and he provided it without a problem.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Police have no choice but to eliminate the contractor
as a potential suspect.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Detectives get a photo of the young man
and compare it to the man
seen stealing Mindy's money in the ATM video.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Police bring him in to supply a DNA sample
to compare with the male DNA found in Mindy's house.
When investigators get the results back from the lab,
they find there is no match.
[narrator] Detectives rule out the contractor's son as a suspect.
[narrator] But, on August ninth,
five days after Mindy goes missing,
police get a big break in the case.
A person has found Mindy's car
at the Anchorage International Airport.
[narrator] Could this mean that Mindy Schloss
made it to Fairbanks on her business trip after all?
The vast majority of missing persons return unharmed.
[narrator] Detective Perreneud is less optimistic.
But I just know that Mindy was probably dead.
We are very worried
that we're actually gonna find Mindy in the trunk of her car.
[narrator] In Anchorage, Alaska,
52-year-old Mindy Schloss has been missing for five days
when detectives respond to a call about her vehicle.
Mindy's car was found at the Anchorage airport.
We go to the parking lot.
It's parked, not in regular parking
like somebody would take a flight to the airport,
but in a place that provides food for the airlines.
[Pamela] She's not in her car.
[Pamela] And we find a suitcase
and items for travel inside the suitcase.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] In Mindy's car,
investigators also find her computer.
Police technicians determine the last time Mindy logged on.
[narrator] As police suspected,
Mindy was likely abducted shortly after that on August fourth.
And her car has still more to reveal.
[Pamela] We can see a shoe impression,
as if somebody was laying in the backseat of the car
and their feet were pressed up against the side wall
just below the window.
[narrator] Detectives suspect that woman was Mindy,
who was likely restrained and lying on her back.
But what police discover next is even more grim.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Mindy is still missing,
but she was bound and bleeding in the backseat of her car.
At this point, we become extremely concerned.
It's not just that she was missing.
Mindy was probably dead.
[narrator] Now detectives need to figure out
who left Mindy's car at the airport.
[narrator] Mindy's red sedan arrives at the airport
on August fourth at 12:45 PM.
But she's not in it.
The surveillance video shows the vehicle
pulling into the parking lot and parking near the building.
Then we can see that there's an individual
that gets out of the driver's seat.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] The man exiting Mindy's car
has the same backpack and skin tone
as the man in the ATM videos.
We are certain that the suspect is responsible for Mindy's disappearance.
[narrator] But to find him, they first need to identify him.
[narrator] Police process the vehicle for prints, but find none.
This individual is trying to cover his tracks.
[narrator] Without fingerprints or DNA of the man in the videos,
detectives have no way to identify him.
But investigators think of another way to find his name.
We find out, in the evening of August third,
she is visited by one of the contractors
to discuss the remodeling of her home.
[narrator] And that's not all they find out.
[Slav speaking]
[John] This guy is a serious criminal.
[Slav speaking]
He has a long criminal history, including assault.
[narrator] Detectives also discover that Tiger Chase is ex-military.
The way that Mindy Schloss' bed was made
was with military-style precision.
[narrator] Could Chase be the one who made Mindy's bed,
withdrew her money,
then left her car at the airport
all to conceal his abduction,
theft, murder and disposal of Mindy Schloss?
There is a possibility that this could be our guy.
[narrator] Five days after Mindy Schloss
went missing in Anchorage, Alaska,
police pick up a Hells Angels ex-con named Tiger Chase.
Chase met Mindy about contracting work
the day before she went missing.
[Slav speaking]
We were looking for an individual with a tattoo
that we saw in the ATM video.
[narrator] But is he telling the truth?
[narrator] With Chase ruled out,
investigators have run out of leads.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] And after several days of searching,
police have also failed to find any trace of Mindy
in the woods near her home, or anywhere else.
[Michael] With each passing hour or day,
the likelihood of recovering a body
and any evidence to go with it
becomes increasingly unlikely.
[narrator] But six days after Mindy's disappearance,
detective Perrenoud gets a promising lead.
[Pamela] I get a call from Kathy,
the woman that I gave my business card to,
the neighbor next to the party house
that seemed to be really uncomfortable talking to me.
[Slav speaking]
His first name is Josh.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Josh lived in the party house between Kathy and Mindy.
Kathy now believes Josh may have harmed Mindy
because he's been threatening Kathy too.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Terrified of her young neighbor's threats,
she sits down to tell the detective
everything she knows about Josh.
Detective Perrenoud records the conversation.
[Pamela] Kathy tells me that,
just before I knocked on the door of her home,
Josh from next door at the party house
comes over to her house.
And that's why she got rid of us as quick as possible.
[Pamela] She asked him, "What was that warrant for?"
And he told her it was for robbing a drug dealer.
And he just didn't want the police to know he was there
because he knew that he would get arrested.
She also told me that, later that evening,
she could hear somebody walking on the porch.
[John] Initially, she thinks it's her roommate,
but then, as she looks out,
she sees Josh pacing on her front porch.
And now she's terrified.
[Pamela] That is what prompted her to give us a call
'cause she knew that she could be in danger.
[narrator] Detective Perrenoud asks Kathy
to tell her more of what she knows about Josh.
[narrator] More importantly,
Kathy noticed that Josh has tattoos on his hands.
Kathy's description of Josh could very well match
that of the person in the surveillance footage from the ATM.
[Pamela] We know we have to find Josh.
So we set up surveillance on the party house.
We take notes about who's coming and going.
[narrator] And while police keep an eye on the place,
detectives search for Josh's last name.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Detectives obtain the lease from the owner.
[John] And there is no Josh on the lease,
only Shane, the son of the property owner.
So we talk to Shane.
[narrator] Detectives ask Shane Josh's last name.
Unfortunately, he doesn't know Josh's last name,
but his friend Jenna might.
[John] When we hear the name Joshua Wade,
our jaws drop to the table.
[narrator] It turns out Joshua Wade
has no pending arrest warrants,
but he does have serious priors.
He had been arrested and charged
with the murder of Della Brown.
Although he was acquitted of the murder,
he was convicted of evidence-tampering.
[narrator] While Wade has no warrants out for his arrest,
he's an ex-convict and only recently released.
[Julia] Josh Wade served six and a half years in prison
and he had only been out about six months
when Mindy Schloss disappeared.
[narrator] Joshua Wade is now the prime suspect in Mindy's disappearance
and likely her murder.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Two weeks after Mindy Schloss was abducted,
detectives have finally identified a prime suspect,
her next-door neighbor and ex-con, Joshua Wade.
But there's no evidence
that concretely places him with Mindy.
[narrator] So, police in Anchorage
reach out to the FBI for help.
[Pamela] The FBI come with an idea
about scent-detection dogs.
They tell me that the dogs
can follow the scent of a person
up to an unknown amount of time.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Detectives hope the canines
can sniff out the evidence they need.
They were given the scent from Mindy's vehicle.
The dogs are then introduced
to that scent at the ATM.
And then the first dog tracks the scent
to Mindy's home,
goes up to the front door,
comes back down the stairs,
goes over to the fence
that divides Mindy's property from the party house property,
goes around the fence,
doesn't go up to the front door of the party house,
but goes to the side door which is used by all the residents
and sits down and indicates that's where the scent stops.
And I was just shocked.
Then the second dog does the exact same thing as the first dog.
What's amazing is the second ATM
is quite far from the party house
and the dog makes its way back from that second ATM.
[narrator] Based on the canine's identification,
detectives can now obtain a warrant to search Josh Wade's home.
Josh Wade is not home,
but we do search his room.
[Pamela] The window from Josh's room
has a perfect view to Mindy's house.
[John] It's a perfect spot for him to watch her routine
and to scope out what she does on a daily basis.
[narrator] That's not the only thing in the room
that strikes detectives.
[Slav speaking]
We also find a pack of black zip ties.
Forensics tells us
that these are the same zip ties
that we found in Mindy's house.
[narrator] Police find more damning evidence.
The puffy coat that looked like the one
that was worn in the ATM video.
And inside the pocket of that jacket,
we find the ATM receipt
where he withdrew the money from Mindy's bank account.
[narrator] They also find a gold watch
hidden in Josh's closet.
[Pamela] It looks to be the same watch that Mindy is wearing
in the photographs that we were given.
[Keira] Killers will keep a keepsake of the victim
as a trophy, a symbol of what they've done
and, perhaps, a fantasy that they've had about them.
[narrator] With all the evidence collected,
detectives have enough to charge Josh Wade for theft.
But police have no idea where he is,
so they ask the public for help.
[Pamela] Josh Wade's photo is released to the public.
Everybody in town knows the police are looking for Josh Wade.
[narrator] The strategy works.
A young woman comes forward claiming she knows Josh.
She indicates that he has been getting rides from her,
in fact, he's been sleeping in her car.
[narrator] It's the same backpack
the masked suspect is carrying in the ATM videos.
[John] We search the backpack
and we locate a locked phone
that we believe to be Josh Wade's.
[narrator] While police technicians attempt to unlock the phone,
Josh's female friend
offers to help authorities apprehend him.
The young woman tells us
that she sees him near an apartment building.
[narrator] The Anchorage SWAT team springs into action.
But when they arrive,
Joshua Wade sees them,
flees into the apartment building
and takes a young woman hostage.
[narrator] After several hours of tense negotiations,
Joshua Wade agrees to let the hostage go
and surrender to police.
[John] We take him into custody
and bring him to the police station.
[narrator] First, they want to document
a uniquely identifying mark.
We ask him to raise his hand over his face.
And it's at that point
that we can see the tattoo on his hand
and the tattoo matches the man in the ATM video.
[narrator] Detectives now have hard evidence
that proves Josh stole Mindy's money and watch.
But he won't reveal anything else.
[Pamela] He's being extremely cocky, arrogant.
[narrator] Police can't charge Josh
for abduction or murder without a body,
so detectives try to provoke a confession.
We tell him that he's under arrest for bank fraud
for using Mindy Schloss' ATM card.
[Pamela] And we said, "We actually spoke to Mindy
and she told us that she did not give you permission to use it."
And he just looks and smirks.
That conversation
left no doubt in my mind
that he was responsible for what happened to her
'cause, obviously, he knew that we couldn't speak to Mindy.
[narrator] Josh's reaction confirms detectives' suspicions
about Mindy's fate,
but they still don't have enough to charge him with murder
and time is not on their side.
[Pamela] It's getting close to the time
where it's gonna snow in Alaska,
and if we don't find her before it snows,
we are not gonna find her, possibly, ever.
[narrator] Just when it looks like Josh may get away with murder,
investigators receive promising news.
Some utility workers find a body
that is possibly Mindy Schloss' body.
[narrator] The remains are located in a forest
a few miles from Josh and Mindy's street.
I go to the location
and I see remains of a person.
The body is decayed
and looks like it's been partially burned.
And we can see that the hands are bound with black zip ties.
We check the manufacturer number on the zip ties
and find that it's the same type of zip tie
that we found at Josh's house and in Mindy's bedroom.
[narrator] They also spot an item
that helps to identify the victim
before DNA corroborates it.
[Slav speaking]
Between the necklace and the zip ties,
I am sure that this is Mindy Schloss.
[narrator] Police also find evidence
that suggests Mindy's cause of death,
which an autopsy will later confirm.
[Pamela] And there's a shell casing from a GLOCK 45
found near the body.
[narrator] Ultimately, investigators get one last piece to the puzzle
that enables them to charge the man responsible.
[Slav speaking]
[narrator] Detectives can now finally piece together
the last 24 hours of Mindy Schloss' life.
[John] On August third, in the evening,
Mindy talks with Tiger Chase at her residence
about working on her home.
Later that night,
Mindy is looking on the internet about nursing
until around 11:30 at night when she logs off.
[Pamela] On August fourth, about 1:30 AM,
Josh Wade enters Mindy Schloss' house.
[narrator] And accosts Mindy in her bedroom with a gun.
[Pamela] I think he sexually assaulted her.
[Julia] He tied her with tip ties
and got her to tell him her PIN number.
[John] Wade then forces Mindy into her car
where, then, he drives her to a cul-de-sac.
[Pamela] He walked her in there
and then he told her to kneel down
so he could cut the zip ties off of her wrist...
[gun fires]
...and then shot her in the back of the head.
[Slav speaking]
[Pamela] At 4:00 AM, Wade returns to Mindy's house,
cleans up, makes her bed and leaves.
[John] At 12:45 PM,
Wade drives Mindy's car to the airport
and leaves it there.
On August fifth, Wade drives to an ATM
where he uses Mindy's card to make a $500 withdrawal.
On August the sixth, Wade uses Mindy's card
to withdraw $500 from her account
from a different ATM.
[narrator] Josh Wade faces the death penalty
for the abduction and killing of Mindy Schloss.
[Julia] And in order to avoid it, he strikes a deal,
and in that deal,
he confesses to killing Mindy Schloss
and admits to killing Della Brown.
[narrator] Joshua Wade is senteed to 99 years in prison.
He's never going to leave jail again,
so justice was served.
But that will never bring Mindy back.
It's just a terrible, sad situation
where somebody who helped society
and did such incredible things
was taken way too soon.