[tense music]
[laughing] [dramatic music]
- I could just hear her phone ringing,
ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing,
and I'm thinking, why is she not answering it?
And the dogs were over there just barking, barking.
So no, like this is wrong. It's all wrong.
[siren wailing]
- We went out there to check on Linda.
We were getting no response.
- I started yelling for her.
- [Curt] We're trying to look in the windows.
The house was a mess.
- It looked like there had been a fight.
This is bad.
- We learned that her ex-boyfriend
had some violent tendencies.
He even choked her in the past.
I'm thinking, time's ticking.
We gotta find Linda, let's find her alive.
[tense music]
We are doing everything we can do to confirm
that Linda's there and if her wellbeing's okay.
When we eventually get inside, the radio was still on
and the gas stove was still on and burning.
There are some things on the floor that's usually not there.
We see the lamp knocked over
and there's a broken necklace on the floor,
along with Linda's purse and cell phone.
- When I saw the broken necklace, that was like fear.
You could tell that it had been ripped off.
It was like, no way. Just no way.
- Definitely appeared to be
some kind of struggle happened in there.
You know, a fight of some kind or something.
[tense music]
We are going through the house, but Linda's not there.
- It just makes your worst fears automatically go to bad places,
because she always had her phone on her
and the dogs would always be with her.
She didn't go anywhere without them.
- The worst case is she has been taken against her will
and what else has happened to her?
[tense music]
- She's somebody's mother. She's somebody's daughter.
She's somebody's cousin. She's somebody's sister.
She's also somebody's friend.
She's a lot of people's friend.
- I spoke with a lot of friends.
When discussing possible suspects,
they had mentioned Linda's ex-boyfriend,
Charles Willhite, that Linda had recently broken up with,
and Jay Rothe that had been
with Linda the night before at Linda's house.
We needed to find them as quickly as possible
to figure out where Linda was.
[gentle music]
- Linda Riley was my next door neighbor
and when she first moved in,
she had these two little puppies.
And I thought, oh gosh, here we go, some crazy dog lady.
[chuckles] And she turned out to be a very amazing person.
I knew her as Twiggy.
She was a very tiny person,
but she's got a big, bubbly personality.
We'd meet out in the yard every morning
and we'd have like a cup of coffee
or something together and became friends.
I don't think I remember ever seeing her
without a smile on her face.
[tense music]
- Jay came down consensually.
I was kind of taken aback because
we made numerous attempts to get in contact with Jay
and had been unsuccessful with that.
Jay said that he had heard that Linda was missing
and he knew that we would wanna talk with him.
Now I have to figure out
if he may have done something to Linda
or if he could point us to where Linda might be located.
All right, Jay, again, I appreciate you coming in
and talking with me.
So you were with her last night?
- [Neal] Tell me, tell me about last night.
Tell me what you guys did last night.
- [Neal] And then you went back to Linda's?
- [Neal] Okay, and then how late did you stay over there?
- [Neal] Okay.
- [Neal] Did she reply back to you when you sent her this text?
- [Neal] Can I see that?
- [Neal] Okay.
Do you mind, how do I see the rest of your messages?
- [Neal] Okay.
- [Neal] Whenever I asked to look at his phone,
he readily gave it up.
And his version of events matched with the text messages.
It did not appear that he was holding anything back.
[clock ticking]
What would you consider your guys' relationship?
- [Neal] You had a little, an intimate relationship?
- [Neal] Maybe having sex on occasion?
Is that what you're talking--
- [Neal] Okay.
Have you guys ever had any problems before with each other?
- [Neal] Nothing big, though?
- [Neal] Who's that?
[tense music]
- He got worked up when talking about Charles
and he's really trying to point the finger,
but he genuinely seemed concerned about her
and he was totally cooperative.
He really didn't provide anything
that would add suspicion to him.
So Jay is free to go.
Well, you have my number, so if anything comes up.
I appreciate you volunteering to come down here
on your own too, as well, so.
- [Neal] Let you get outta here, okay?
- At that point, I needed to speak with Charles
with the hope that he would lead us to where Linda was.
[tense music]
Have a seat for me there.
[clock ticking]
Thanks, Charles. All right.
When was the last time you talked to Linda?
- [Neal] Okay.
- [Neal] No, no.
So you guys were together for how long?
- [Neal] When did you guys separate or break up?
- [Neal] Did she mention
that she was having problems with anyone?
- It was readily apparent both Jay and Charles
had animosity between each other,
but Jay didn't bring the physical altercations up
during the first interview with him.
That was very suspicious.
So I wanted to see what else Charles had to say,
what he could tell me.
So basically, what you're telling me is you're saying
you think Jay has something to do with this.
- Well, I appreciate you coming in again
and cooperating with us.
My head was kind of spinning
trying to decipher who's being honest.
Because we had no physical evidence
to point us in the right direction.
All right, Charles, if you hear anything or...
- At that point,
I needed to know if Jay did in fact assault Linda.
[tense music]
- I told them that Linda had told me that her
and Charles did have fights like every other couple.
But they had more of a loving, affectionate relationship
and he just was not on my suspect list at all.
And then I told him Jay Rothe was really the only person
that she had had any problems with.
- She said that Linda claimed
that Jay assaulted her in his vehicle which matched
with what we had heard from Charles Willhite.
- She said he gave her a ride somewhere
and then he tried to choke her
and, literally, tried to pull her tonsils out of her mouth.
And he's like biker-type size,
you know, like, big hands, and she's tiny.
And I was like, no, this isn't cool.
This isn't right, you know?
- So the focus really came down to Jay
because he's the last person that is seen with her.
And now I am aware of the violence between he and Linda.
- Time is not on our side.
Once you get to the 48-hour period,
your chances of finding that individual alive is very slim.
[tense music]
[clock ticking]
- [Neal] Thanks again for coming in.
You know, we greatly appreciate your help.
- I had made up my mind
that I was gonna get a lot more pointed with my questions.
Let's cut the chase.
No more games, and I wanna know the truth.
[laughing]
- Linda has a daughter and she lives in Japan.
But they would talk on the phone all the time.
"This is how this week went."
"This is kind of what I did today."
And all of a sudden, she's getting phone calls
that her mom's missing, you know.
And it was hard 'cause I told them
I'd watch over her, and I did.
But nobody ever expected this.
[tense music]
- We believe that Linda was abducted
and I had Jay admitting that
he's the last person to have seen Linda alive.
I've got to figure out if there was more to his story
that he was not telling me.
We've talked to so many people
and there's no trace of her
or anything after you leave the house--
- [Neal] A little after 3:00.
Where do we go from there?
- [Neal] Have you guys ever had any physical violence?
- [Neal] No hitting, pushing, shoving?
- [Neal] Nothing at all like that?
- [Neal] Okay.
I felt like he was really trying to downplay the incident,
but I didn't confront him because I don't wanna
do anything that's gonna get him to stop talking.
I was still holding out hope
that Jay would lead us to where Linda was.
[clock ticking]
Where do you think Linda is right now?
- [Neal] Okay.
- [Neal] You think she could be dead?
You think somebody coulda killed her?
- [Neal] Okay.
Did you have anything to do with her being gone?
- [Neal] Yeah.
With her being missing right now?
- [Neal] So you didn't have anything to do with it then?
- [Neal] I don't know, you tell me.
You tell me, 'cause we're just trying to find her.
- [Neal] You think I'm leaving anything out?
- After my interview, I was suspicious of Jay.
All right, Jay, you ready to get outta here?
But I don't have anything that I can hold him.
So Jay was released in the hopes
that he would continue to speak with me
if something else came up.
[tense music]
Our crime scene processors go through the van
and they showed me a very, very small dark-colored spot
in the back of the van.
He believed that it was blood and he said that
when they swabbed it up, it appeared fresh.
Immediately, I drove to where her parents lived in Arkansas
to obtain DNA samples from them
and brought them over to the crime lab.
It was a couple days later when they confirmed
that it was Linda's blood.
At that point, there was no evidence to show
that Charles Willhite had any involvement whatsoever.
But every little sign that we had was pointing at Jay
and Jay became my point of focus.
[tense music]
I was holding out hope that she was still alive.
I contacted Jay to see if he would respond
for another interview to which he agreed.
Uh, all right, Jay, we're grasping at straws here.
Have you heard anything at all?
- [Neal] Nothing?
- [Neal] You really care for her, don't you?
- [Neal] Sure, yeah.
[imitates laugh]
- [Neal] Well, it almost seems like
you care so much about her that you--
- Yeah, I can see that.
But Jay, there's some stuff that's come up
in this investigation, okay?
- [Neal] And we need to talk about it.
And you know, like, there she is right there.
- [Neal] Yeah. Well, Jay,
you and I both know you're involved in this.
[tense music]
- [Neal] The evidence clearly shows that you're involved.
Okay? So we need to know what happened.
- [Neal] Jay, we know that you're involved
in Linda's disappearance.
- [Neal] We know that.
Jay, Jay, hear me out.
- [Neal] You've gotta do the right thing right now, okay?
- [Neal] Jay, you gotta tell me where she is.
- I really changed my interview tactic
to where I was pointing the finger right at Jay.
And I just moved in as close as I could get,
but he stayed calm.
He didn't raise his voice, he never got defensive.
And I felt it was the right time
to inform him of the blood being in the vehicle.
Jay,
when you brought your van in for us the other day.
- [Neal] When you allowed us
to search your van and process it for evidence.
- [Neal] We found blood in your van.
- [Neal] Whose blood is that, Jay?
- [Neal] Why would it be Linda's blood?
- [Neal] When did she cut her finger in there?
- [Neal] Okay, well, Jay, the blood's fresh.
Look at that.
99.9999999%.
- [Neal] It's Linda's.
Jay, you need to do the right thing right now.
You need to tell us what happened in there
and you need to tell us why it happened.
- [Neal] Jay, we're long past that.
We're long past that.
This is fresh, you can't get around it.
That's Linda's blood in your van.
The frustration is definitely there
because it's one denial after the next.
He's not budging.
I started to wonder, is he ever gonna give it up?
And it was scary to think that he may not.
[clock ticking]
Did you kill Linda?
- [Neal] You did kill Linda because if Linda was alive,
you could take us to her right now.
- [Neal] How else would you explain it, Jay?
- [Neal] Why wouldn't you think she's dead?
[tense music]
- Jay, we know that's not gonna happen.
I felt like I was in a boxing match
and if I got one good blow on him,
then he was hitting me back with multiple.
I was not able to get him to budge.
Jay, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure things out
because I guarantee you, I'm no rocket scientist.
- [Neal] I know.
Either you're the most unlucky guy
on the face of the Earth,
or you're obviously the person that did it.
Because guess where every arrow is pointing.
- [Neal] Of course, every arrow.
How do you think you'd do on a polygraph test?
- [Neal] Okay, 'cause you're telling me,
are you telling me the truth?
- [Neal] Okay, so we do a quick polygraph
and that'll, I mean, that'd really go well for you.
That could help eliminate you.
So I'm guessing you'd probably wanna do that
to help eliminate you from some of this?
- Okay, let me go and I'll make arrangements.
Do you you need some more water or anything right now?
- [Neal] Okay. All right, I'll be right back.
I was excited because I believed he was going to fail it.
Polygraphs cannot be used in court
so we couldn't use that against him.
But that would give me something
that I could really go at Jay with
and attack him with the polygraph failure.
- [Bob] Let's see, this chair right there for me, Jay.
I'm gonna set this over here,
'cause I'm bound to knock it off on my floor if I don't, okay?
- [Bob] Been talking to Detective McAmis today
and everything in reference to Linda, I guess.
- [Bob] So I'm ready to start the polygraph exam.
It's up to you on whether or not you wanna take it.
Would you like to take the polygraph exam?
- [Bob] Well, the only thing you're gonna say to me
is yes or no.
And I'll be honest and straightforward.
I'm gonna ask you questions
specific to Linda's disappearance
and whether or not you had any direct involvement in that
or have knowledge that you're withholding
from Detective McAmis, okay?
- [Bob] I can't make a decision for you
as to whether or not you wanna take the exam.
- [Bob] That's your choice.
I can't make that decision for you.
- [Bob] So are you wanting that?
- The police asked me my top three suspects
that I would think and I said Jay, Jay, and Jay.
I didn't really like him.
He would get jealous of her friends.
It didn't matter if you were male, female or what.
But Linda, she just tried to help
and made everybody feel comfortable.
Anytime there was a mood
that felt like the slightest bit heavy,
she was gonna make you laugh.
[tense music]
[clock ticking]
- [Bob] You just need to let me know, yes or no,
whether or not you wanna take the exam.
- [Bob] Okay, okay.
- [Bob] Do you wanna think about it for a few minutes
and then I'll come back in and then,
you can let me know what you decide, okay?
- [Bob] So I'll give you a few minutes to think about it
and I'll be right back and check with you, okay?
- [Bob] Yep.
It was obvious that Jay was very, very nervous.
But it was definitely a red flag for me to use some caution
because I don't wanna push him to the point
that he decides that he's not gonna cooperate further.
So I spoke with Detective McAmis.
- Jay had made multiple statements to me
that he would do whatever it would take
to find Linda and to try to help her out.
So I decided I was gonna bring that up
to see what Jay would have to say about that.
Jay, how you doing?
- [Neal] He said you're thinking about
not doing this right now.
- Jay, you've been completely cooperative
throughout this whole ordeal
and you know, you and I,
we've gotten along pretty darn well I think.
- But I'm not gonna lie to you.
If you decide you're not gonna do it,
alarm bells are gonna be going off like crazy
because this is your shot to help eliminate yourself.
- You've told me the whole time that, "I just wanna help Linda,
I wanna find Linda, hope she's okay."
- "I wanna help you guys out, I wanna cooperate with you,"
and this is your opportunity to help verify.
You're telling me, you're telling the truth, right?
- [Neal] You say you're telling the truth.
- [Bob] But until we can clear your name, we don't know.
There's always that doubt for us.
- [Bob] Well, just unfortunately, I mean,
that's the way it is.
- [Bob] It's not the computer, it's your body.
All it does is record your body.
It has nothing to do with,
the computer doesn't do any thinking.
It's just a recording device.
- It was absolutely critical to keep Jay on board
and talking with me
because we still have no idea whatsoever
what happened to Linda or where she is.
Jay?
- [Neal] I like you, Jay.
Shoot, you know, we could talk fishing
and animals probably all day with each other.
Okay?
- [Neal] But right now is the time
where you need to help eliminate yourself.
There's absolutely zero reason for you not to do it
and that's how it is.
- So let's do it, Jay.
I'll get Detective Byrne back in here.
It won't be long.
Get it over with and then we'll move on from there.
- Finally when he was out of excuses,
fortunately, he agreed to take the polygraph.
[tense music]
- [Bob] Okay, Jay, the questions are about to begin.
Are you 65 years old?
- [Bob] Are you physically responsible
for Linda Riley's disappearance
from her residence on February 27, 2012?
- [Bob] Did you physically cause
the death of Linda Riley on February 27, 2012?
- [Bob] Did you physically remove Linda Riley
from her residence on February 27, 2012?
- [Bob] Okay, that was the final question.
We're done at this point, Jay.
I just need to go over the charts, okay?
[tense music]
- Unfortunately, there was nothing else
in the rest of the home
that the investigators could find that would help
in terms of where do we need to look next for Linda.
So it really came down to,
I am gonna have to get a confession from Jay.
[police radio chatter]
At that point, Detective Byrne informed me
that there was no question of the results
that Jay did fail it.
I knew he was not being truthful in his statements.
So let's get some closure for Linda's family.
[clock ticking]
Well, we got the results back, Jay,
and it's kind of what we both knew.
You failed it pretty bad.
[tense music]
Let's just cut to the chase.
Were you defending yourself,
was it an accident, or was it intentional?
- [Neal] Jay, we're past it.
- That's not it, Jay.
- Jay, that's not it.
Jay, you need to tell us what happened
and get this over with.
He continued with his denials
and it was at that time when I decided
I was just gonna totally switch tactics.
I knew that he lived with his son, Jason.
And so I wanted to talk about him,
just to see if I could get him to budge.
Jay, you gotta do the right thing,
you know mainly for yourself, of course,
but your boy.
- [Neal] Poor, old Jason.
- [Neal] He's really upset about the situation
'cause he realizes what's going on
and he knows what you did.
And you don't need to be putting
this kind of grief on him as well,
'cause I think, you know,
he probably deserves some answers as well.
- [Neal] Sure, he does.
We had been in the interview room with Jay
for about 10 hours
and the Jason angle was the first real sign
that there was some effect on Jay.
He just really seemed moved
and I felt that there was almost this sense of defeat.
And so I just wanted to pounce and push it
'cause I felt like, finally,
there's the potential that Jay is getting ready to break.
You just can't leave him hanging like this
because there's gonna be questions.
'Cause he wants to know, "What made my dad do this?
Because that's not like my dad to do something like this."
And this is your chance right here.
But I can at least take something to him
and go to him and say it was a freak deal
'cause it wasn't supposed to happen, was it?
- [Neal] No, it wasn't.
It was just a freak occurrence.
I know that's what it was.
[tense music]
- [Neal] It just was a freak thing, wasn't it?
[clock ticking]
- [Neal] Well, tell me, tell me about it.
I know it's just, I know that's not you.
So tell me how it all went down.
[Jay sighs]
- [Neal] So everything was going okay
and then started talking about
all the guys that she had coming over.
- [Neal] What'd she bang her head on?
- [Neal] And how bad was she hurt?
- [Neal] Knocked out?
- [Neal] You laid her in the van?
- [Neal] You had to carry her out?
- [Neal] Okay.
You carried her out, about what time was that?
- [Neal] Little after three?
- [Neal] Okay, so you carried her out to the van
and then, then what'd you do?
- [Neal] She woke up?
- [Neal] What'd she hit her head on?
- [Neal] Did you call
or think about taking her to the hospital
or anything to see if she was okay,
or did you pretty much know if she was dead?
- [Neal] She was gone?
I understand.
How were you able to clean the blood up at your house?
- [Neal] How much blood was there?
- [Neal] Mm-hmm.
I believed that Jay was giving me
some truth as to what occurred,
but there's no type of blood evidence at Jay's residence
that says Linda fell back and hit her head.
And with such, the small amount of blood
that was in the back of Jay's van,
most of us believed that it was probable
that Linda had been strangled.
But I had to go along with him at that point
because even with the confession in this case,
prosecution still could be extremely difficult
with a no body case.
So I needed Jay to take us to Linda.
[clock ticking]
- [Neal] I understand.
Did Jason know that you brought her
to the house that night?
- [Neal] How was she quiet enough for him not to know?
- [Neal] Where'd you take her, Jay?
- [Neal] How did you transport her up to the lake?
- [Neal] Okay.
- [Neal] You buried her?
[tense music]
- [Neal] You buried her?
- [Neal] How did you burn her, Jay?
- [Neal] Did you wrap her in anything?
- [Neal] Where's the tarp at right now?
- [Neal] You burned the tarp as well?
- [Neal] Did you fish while you were burning her
or how did that happen?
- [Neal] And you just kinda had your little fire going,
and you're fishing, and...
- [Neal] Is she still out there?
- [Neal] Are her bones still out there?
- I was very surprised
even with everything that had gone on,
I wasn't expecting him to say that he had burned her.
I didn't know what to expect in terms of the remains
or what we were going to find.
But I knew getting him to take us to her body
was the next phase of what needed to be done in the case.
[clock ticking]
What would you think about taking us out there
and showing us exactly where it is?
That way, maybe we can...
- [Neal] I figured you would.
- [Neal] I think you're ready.
[tense music]
He jumped in the car with my partner and I.
He took us to Stockton Lake
which is just an hour north of Springfield.
- Jay took us to the burn site which was,
in fact, the last place that he told us about
where he went fishing the day that Linda went missing.
- We're looking in there and upon the naked eye,
there's ash there and minute amounts of bone fragment
that were burned beyond recognition.
In searching for Linda's remains,
it was really quite shocking to see how little was left.
- I've worked a lot of cases and I've had a few burnings,
but I've never had one burnt to this magnitude
that we were only able to find small fractions of bones.
- But fortunately, I was able to send it off for testing
and the DNA testing from the bones that were recovered
did in fact confirm that it was the remains of Linda.
[tense music]
- He took her out that door
and put her in a van right here.
My bedroom window is right there.
He was less than 12 feet that he took her out
and put her in a van and drove away.
There were a lot of tears. Just like, why?
Jay, he said you loved her so much, but you murdered her
and then stood there beside her while she burned and fished.
It was horrific. It was absolutely horrific.
[tense music]
- I did feel good about the life sentence.
I knew that he would never leave jail alive
and it really meant a lot that we were able
to return Linda to the family and give her a burial.
- I don't understand where it came from or why.
She wasn't a bad person that deserved that.
She's a little person with a big heart.
Her heart was about five times the size that she was.
She had children that she loved very much.
[somber music]
I just feel like everybody needs to know
what a good person she was.
I'd like to think that she'd be here
and spending time with her kids and the dogs.
So she'd probably be shopping at the thrift stores
and trying on hats.
She's this big, you know, but that hat could be this big
and she's gonna try it on
and you're gonna have some laughs, you know?
Hopefully, she'd know that her family loves her.
I loved her and we miss you every day.
- [Linda] I love you.