(ominous music)
- [Narrator] A woman works alone overnight
at the Swanson Motel, but, before morning, she'll be dead,
and the discovery of a second victim
will shatter this once quiet town,
drawing national attention.
- With no witnesses and limited evidence,
it isn't long before the case goes cold.
- [Narrator] But it isn't forgotten.
- An officer assigned to the case
hears about the FBI's new profiling unit
and gets a psychological profile made of the killer.
- [Narrator] As an emerging science,
officers aren't sure at first how to use it,
but, 10 years later,
Detective Rummel reads the profile
and makes a discovery that will blow the case wide open.
- It really takes its toll on a community,
and, for Dickinson,
that's one crime that never went away,
and, for the police department, it never went away.
- [Narrator] Though it takes over a decade
for the suspect to finally emerge,
the Swanson Motel murders will go on to become
a textbook example used by the FBI
in the training in their criminal profiling method.
(dramatic music)
- The unsolved ones, we have to stand up.
- And approach these cases in a way outside the box.
- Let the world know that those out there
that did commit a murder, you know,
there are people that are coming after you.
- There's just a lot of good people
trying to do the right thing.
- Because it's something
that you have to be passionate about.
- Solve this and bring some peace to the family at least.
I was just doing my job.
(foreboding music) (gavel bangs)
(peaceful music)
- [Narrator] The small town of Dickinson, North Dakota.
A mere 50 miles from the Badlands,
it's a place of rest for many transient workers
employed in the region's booming oil sector.
- It was an oil boom town,
so there were a lot of people coming and going.
The town was growing tremendously,
so there was a lot of movement and a lot of transients.
- [Narrator] In the early '80s, rooms at the Swanson Motel
are typically rented on a weekly rather than a daily basis,
given that so many of the oil workers
are there for long periods of time.
The motel is small and older
and located on the main road in Dickinson.
It's a staple of the growing community
and an example of the economic boom
many are benefiting from.
- But something terrible is coming,
something no one is prepared for,
and something that's gonna make national headlines.
(ominous music)
- [Narrator] At approximately 7:45 a.m.
on November 16th, 1981,
a man stops by the motel to grab a coffee
and catch up with some of the staff
like he always does before heading to work.
The man is surprised that there's no one at the front desk.
- He calls out several times.
When no one answers, he makes his way around the desk
and he's horrified to see the body of a woman.
- [Narrator] The man immediately calls 911 to report it.
(foreboding music)
Patrolman Chuck Rummel arrives on the scene
with Chief Barnhart and Detective Rice.
Rummel, the rookie, secures the motel entrance
while investigators go over the crime scene inside.
- Actually, I had just gotten back into patrol.
I was in investigation for about six months
just about two weeks prior to that,
and I decided investigation wasn't for me,
not at that time anyway, so I got back into uniform,
and so I and my sergeant go screaming over there
and my job was to make sure
nobody else gets into the crime scene.
- As soon as the body is discovered, the clock is ticking.
Investigators are working as hard as they can
to find the person and make an arrest.
- They went inside the building
and examined the lady on the floor.
She had her hands tied behind her back.
She had her legs tied,
and then the cord was wrapped around her neck,
and as I'm outside
and those guys are in there, processing that scene,
a car comes up to a screaming halt
and this lady jumps out and says, "My baby, my baby."
- The woman is Melody Lietz,
the mother of seven-year-old Danelle,
who investigators discover
spent the night with her grandmother at the motel.
Detectives have only started combing the scene
when they discover a second body.
Melody's daughter Danelle is found on a bed
in a room used by employees
working overnight shifts at the motel.
She's covered with a sheet
and she too has suffered head wounds
and appears to have been smothered.
- You didn't talk about your feelings back then.
You didn't talk about how messed up this is.
You just acted like a robot.
We really talked about the case,
but not about how we felt about the case
or the fact that an innocent little girl was murdered.
- [Narrator] Officers have the unfortunate task
of breaking the news to the child's mother
who's here to pick her daughter up for school.
- And I had to hold her back,
and I couldn't hold her back, to be honest.
She was going to go in there.
- This is the first double homicide Dickinson has ever had,
and police are feeling the immense pressure
knowing a child is involved.
The town is gonna want answers
and they're gonna want them fast.
(somber music)
- [Narrator] In the '60s,
this once-quiet town experiences an oil boom,
but by the early '70s, Then-Governor Art Link
predicts it's coming to an end,
only Governor Link's prediction is wrong.
By 1981, the boom is still going strong,
and the town of Dickinson
sees a population increase of 7,000 people
within a few years.
With the new wells comes new economic opportunities,
which attract many to the region.
One result of this population increase, though,
is an increase in crime.
- Well, you know, transients, especially these,
would be able to make a lot of money pretty quickly.
Along with the transients came the drugs
and came a lot of other bad things.
Thefts, burglaries.
You know, those guys don't live there permanently,
so they really don't care about the community.
(foreboding music)
- [Narrator] For Melody Lietz and her mom, Priscilla Dinkel,
the economic boom happening in Dickinson
is tempting enough to uproot their lives for,
and, in the summer of 1981,
they make the 360-mile move from Crystal, North Dakota,
where they lived most of their lives, to Dickinson.
Melody moves with her daughter Danelle for work,
and Priscilla finds a job managing the Swanson Motel.
They all see this as a great opportunity
and are happy with their new chosen home.
- A town like Dickinson is the last place
they would've expected any trouble.
There's no way they would've known
what was awaiting them there.
- The female victim is identified as
Priscilla Dinkel, 53 years old.
In one tragic blow,
Melody has lost both her mother and her daughter.
(solemn music)
- In spite of her grief,
it's imperative for detectives to interview Melody.
If anyone had a reason to kill her mother and her child,
she would be the one to know it and why,
and after she takes a moment to collect herself,
she comes up with a name, William Thomas Reager.
- [Narrator] The day after the murders, police arrest Reager
for drunk driving and a suspended license.
Investigators review the crime scene evidence
to try and paint a clearer picture
of what may have happened.
- Priscilla is struck in the head
and tied up with an electrical cord.
- The most disturbing thing investigators find is that
it appears that seven-year-old Danelle
has been sexually assaulted.
However, this will need to be confirmed at the autopsy.
- [Narrator] Priscilla does not appear
to be sexually assaulted.
- The big question here is motive.
Did the killer know the victims?
Did he know Danelle would be here?
Was it strictly a sex crime? Was it a crime of opportunity?
Was it financially motivated?
- How do you narrow the field of suspects down
in a case like this
with all the strange people in and out of town?
- Detectives explore the theory of a robbery gone wrong.
Motel staff confirm $100 is missing from the cash box.
- [Narrator] Investigators question William Reager,
the man Melody accuses of killing her mother and child.
(ominous music) (police siren wails)
- He got a DUI the night after, and he went up there
and he interviewed him right then about some things,
some inconsistencies that he had found in the case
or in his previous statement.
- Police are hopeful that he's their man
and that they can wrap up this investigation quickly,
but beyond Melody's hunch
that he's responsible for the murders,
there's really no evidence
linking him to the Swanson Motel murders.
- [Narrator] With little else to hold William Reager for,
he is released,
and the Dickinson police continue to search for the killer.
(somber music)
(suspenseful music)
On the morning of November 16th, 1981, two bodies are found
at the Swanson Motel in Dickinson, North Dakota.
The double homicide of Melody Lietz' mother and daughter
shocks the town and makes national news.
- Investigators respond with
a long list of possible suspects,
but Melody is convinced that it's a man named William Reager
that's responsible for the murders.
- [Narrator] Reager is interrogated
and detectives determine they have nothing to hold him on.
He's released and the search continues for the killer.
(solemn music)
An autopsy confirms what investigators already suspect.
- Priscilla has a fractured skull
and Danelle has suffered a bruised skull.
The mark on Danelle's cheek
appears to be from a stick from the table
that supports one of the leads.
The killer raped her, untied her,
and then bludgeoned her on the head.
The coroner puts their time of death
sometime between 11:00 p.m. on November 15th
and 3:00 a.m. on November 16th.
The cause of death for both victims is
strangulation with an electrical cord.
- [Narrator] Investigators note
that all the weapons used in the murder
could be found in the motel room.
- Nothing was brought to the scene
to suggest this was premeditated,
meaning this was likely a crime of opportunity,
though given the meager amount of cash that was taken,
it's hard to believe that
the motive for the sexual assault and murder was robbery.
- So, where do you start, you know?
The investigators started with
the people that were living in the motel
and they were talking with them.
- [Narrator] Investigators interview motel guests
to see if anyone saw or heard anything suspicious.
- Only one guest,
a man in a room near where the young girl was murdered,
remembers hearing anything unusual.
He described hearing a sound like a cat meowing.
- [Narrator] Just as the investigation
appears to be hitting a wall,
Chief Barnhart gets a report that a witness recalls
seeing a mysterious individual the night of the murder.
- One of the suspects we began to look at immediately
was somebody that had a backpack on
and was traveling through town.
- [Narrator] The description is vague,
but the witness claims he may have been armed.
- It turns out to be a flimsy lead,
but investigators will take whatever they can get,
so they start looking for
a man who fits the witness description.
- [Narrator] In the meantime,
this double homicide in the quiet small town
has acquired a lot of notoriety
and the attention of the entire nation.
- On November 17th, 1981,
Chief Barnhart addresses the press
and tells them no single suspect has been identified,
but they're combing through a list of potential suspects.
- [Narrator] Two people are dead
and the killer is still at large.
People don't know if
he's passing through town and is long gone,
or if it's one of their own neighbors,
someone still among them.
It causes a lot of fear and anxiety.
- To have this type of crime happen,
particularly involving a child,
that threw everybody into a buzz.
People got scared.
People started locking doors,
started calling things in that were suspicious.
They took notice and were, you know,
being very conscientious of their surroundings.
- [Narrator] Priscilla and Danelle
may not have been residents of Dickinson very long,
but given their involvement at the motel,
they're now known by many in the community.
Priscilla Dinkel is born on January 5th, 1928
and marries Frank Dinkel.
- Investigators interview immediate and extended family.
It becomes clear that no one close to them
could be a suspect.
The search for the killer widens.
- One particular piece of evidence
that investigators are hoping to get
is a fingerprint found on the door jamb
from the door behind the front desk.
- They actually cut the frame and preserve the fingerprint.
- The entire motel staff
is fingerprinted for elimination prints.
Many of the prints found in the crime scene
belong to staff or those permitted access to the area.
(foreboding music)
- [Narrator] But the print from the door jamb
doesn't belong to any of the staff.
It belongs to someone else.
Perhaps the killer leaves it
when he places his hand on the door to the back
where the child is sleeping.
By December, investigators still have not
named a single suspect.
The case has heavy national attention
due to the graphic nature of the murders.
- Chief Barnhart announces that
the state crime lab in Bismarck, North Dakota
is evaluating all the fingerprints and other evidence
obtained from the crime scene,
but it's important to remember that
DNA testing in the early '80s is an emerging science,
and it is now readily available
or used in police departments.
The fingerprint evidence
and the possibility of an eyewitness
is their best chance of narrowing in on a suspect.
- [Narrator] Investigators finally catch up with
the man they believe a witness saw
the night of the murder on Highway 22, the mystery suspect.
- We actually did find that person in another state
like about a week later,
and investigators talked with him,
but he had nothing to do with it.
He wasn't even near that area.
(ominous music)
- Any time an investigator is assigned
to the detectives division,
they are assigned to the Swanson murder case
in the hope that a fresh set of eyes
will bring some new perspective to the case.
- [Narrator] In February, 1982,
Detective Jackie Martin is assigned to the case.
- She's heard about the FBI's new profiling unit
and contacts them in the hopes that
they will develop a psychological profile of the killer,
but the technique is still new
and detectives don't know how to read it properly.
More suspects need to be interviewed.
Meanwhile, Detective Jim Rice
continues to send evidence to police departments
in labs across the country in the hopes that
they'll get a hit on their databases.
- [Narrator] Then, in November, 1983,
police think they may have finally caught a break.
A man is arrested in Texas
and confesses to over 100 murders across the United States.
- But when questioned about
Priscilla and Danelle's killings,
he said he had no involvement.
- There were a couple serial killers that were brought up,
and the trouble was, you know,
they weren't in the area.
They were taken care of pretty quickly.
I mean, as far as they couldn't have done it.
You feel defeated.
You know, you feel like, "What did I miss?"
It haunts you.
That's the cases that haunt you.
You go to bed and you go,
"What could I have done different?"
- [Narrator] The case goes cold and gets shelved for now.
(somber music)
(suspenseful music)
Following the double homicide
of Priscilla Dinkel and Danelle Lietz,
detectives canvas motel guests,
but no one remembers seeing or hearing anything suspicious.
A fingerprint is lifted from the scene,
but there are no hits in the system
that is trying to match the print.
The FBI's head of the new criminal profile division
agrees to help with the case
and creates a criminal profile for the killer,
and when a serial killer is caught in Texas
who claims responsibility
for over a hundred murders nationwide,
Dickinson detectives are hopeful
that they finally caught their man,
but the serial killer denies
having anything to do with the Swanson Motel murders.
The case goes cold and gets shelved.
It's now March, 1987, and while the case has gone cold,
it remains open,
with investigators following any new leads
they can afford the time on.
The once quiet town of Dickinson
has not forgotten the brutal killings,
nor have they forgotten that, somewhere out there,
a killer still walks free,
possibly even someone they know in their own community.
In February, 1989,
Paul Bazzano becomes the new Dickinson police chief.
- In July, 1990,
due to the high profile nature of the Swanson Motel murders,
the police commissioner tasks Chief Bazzano
with solving them.
The public is hopeful that, with a new chief,
the killer might finally be brought to justice.
They assume that,
although some money was missing from the crime scene,
robbery wasn't the motive.
Because there are no signs of forced entry into the motel
and no evidence suggesting that the victims sought help,
investigators conclude that the suspect knew his victims.
- [Narrator] Bazzano assigns
the original responding patrolman, now detective,
Chuck Rummel to head this case.
- The chief wants Detective Rummel
to study the case intimately, more than anyone has before.
- So, every investigator kind of looks at it differently,
and, so with me, I started from the very beginning.
I said, "Okay, I'm going to start from ground zero,
which means I start from
those people that lived in that hotel again.
I'm gonna start with them again
and I'm gonna process each one more thoroughly, I hope."
(ominous music)
- [Narrator] Detective Rummel can barely get
the three foot by four foot cabinet drawer open
because the paperwork is spilling out.
He has his fair share of work cut out for him.
- The Swanson Motel has been torn down,
so Rummel relies on crime scene photographs.
He has a thick file of over 90 suspects,
which includes serial killers from across the country.
He decides to start from ground zero.
He reads everything in the case file.
- [Narrator] Detective Rummel is a few months into the case
when he's sitting at his kitchen table,
reviewing Douglas' FBI profile of the killer.
- So I read it, I read the profile,
and I reread it and I reread it,
and just said, "Okay, which suspect does this fit?"
And I eliminated right off the bat about all down to 10.
So I went from 90 to 10,
and I continued to study it and looked through the files,
and I got down to two.
Bill Reager was one of 'em.
- From a list of over 90 suspects,
the FBI profile appears to fit William Reager,
the man Melody first accuses
of killing her mother and daughter.
- [Narrator] Rummel tracks down Reager's wife
and questions her on his appearance.
- He knows from the profile
that the killer would have changed his looks
after the murders.
- So I asked his wife,
"Did Bill change his appearance in any way?"
And she said, "Yeah."
Immediately, she said, "His hair was always jet black,
and when I saw him a couple weeks after this thing happened,
his hair was gray, just gray."
- She also states that he stayed around Dickinson
for about a month after the murders.
This, along with other matching pieces from the FBI profile,
encourages Rummel that he's on the right track.
- I already had four items on that profile
that were accurate.
Now I gotta dig deeper, you know?
And so I continue to dig into the profile.
- [Narrator] William Reager is born
in the town of Beach, North Dakota in 1942.
He and his family moved to Bismarck in 1948.
Reager experiences a tumultuous upbringing.
He begins elementary school the year before his family moves
and is known for
often getting into fights on the playground.
In one incident, some of the kids
tie a rope around his waist
and hoist him to the top of the flagpole.
Reager only finishes to grade 11, and soon after,
he joins the military.
While he's stationed in Germany on January 18th, 1964,
his mother is killed by a drunk driver.
William flies home for her funeral.
After the army, William moves to Dickinson
and lives there for several years.
In 1970, he's sentenced to a year at the state penitentiary
on a burglary charge.
While in jail, his wife at the time divorces him.
After his release in March, 1971, he returns to Dickinson.
He makes his living driving a cab and working for the city.
Though Dickinson police know of him,
he avoids trouble with the law during this time.
- At the time of the 1981 murders,
he is still driving a cab.
He's also living at the Swanson Motel.
- As I started looking at the other suspect,
I had two of 'em, I kind of eliminated him.
He didn't fit some of the profile like Bill was fitting,
and so I decided let's stick with Bill
and let's find Bill and let's talk to Bill.
- [Narrator] Rummel has the records department
track down Reager
using the FBI's National Crime Information Center.
- Anytime someone comes up in the system, it gets recorded,
and since Reager has a criminal record, he's in the system.
- [Narrator] Which is how Rummel discovers that
a trooper in Arkansas stops Reager
and runs the FBI's NCIC.
- Rummel learns that
Reager is now living in Batesville, Arkansas,
and not only that,
he's suspected for a homicide there as well.
- [Narrator] A decade after the murders,
Rummel and Detective Jerry Theison
drive down to Arkansas to coordinate with police there
and question Reager.
On the way, Rummel tells his partner
that he has no plans on returning
until they find out one way or another
if Reager is responsible for the Swanson Motel murders.
The hunt for the truth is on.
(somber music)
(suspenseful music)
Roughly eight years after the double homicide,
the new Dickinson police chief, Paul Bazzano,
reopens the case.
Chuck Rummel, one of the first responding officers
on the scene of the murder day,
is assigned the case and asked to go over every detail.
He spends hours pouring over files and reports,
but when he comes across the FBI's criminal profile,
he suddenly has a revelation of who the killer is.
Rummel believes the man Melody Lietz suspected back in 1981
fits the profile, William Reager.
Rummel tracks Reager down and discovers
he's living in a small town in Arkansas.
With the cooperation of local police,
he may have a chance
to finally interview his primary suspect.
Rummel's plan is to coordinate with local police
and arrest Reager on a polygamy warrant.
- Reager has two wives,
the one that Rummel spoke to on the phone
who was with him after Dickinson
and a more recent second wife down in Arkansas.
As the two detectives cross state lines,
they discuss theories of
how Reager may have committed the murders.
- [Narrator] The detectives speculate that,
because Reager is living at the motel,
Priscilla is used to seeing him come and go
and would have thought nothing of him being there
that late at night.
- Since there are no indications that there was a struggle,
he could have gotten close enough to strike her.
(tense music)
Which is something a stranger likely couldn't have done.
- Once Reager incapacitates Priscilla, he moves on to
the sleeping child in the back of the bedroom,
and after he's done the unthinkable,
he returns to Priscilla to finish her off
and make sure there are no witnesses.
The day after detectives Rummel and Theison arrive,
sheriffs in a small nearby Arkansas town pick Reager up
and hold him in their office under arrest for polygamy.
The night that the Dickinson detectives arrive,
their Arkansas hosts catch them up to speed
on the local murder Reager is suspected of.
(tense music)
- In 1988, Della Harding is home alone
when Reager allegedly breaks in and strangles her to death.
He then puts her in the trunk of her own car,
dumps her in a nearby creek,
and then abandons the car nearby.
Arkansas Detectives learn that
Reager drives by that house every day
going to and from work.
- [Narrator] After comparing notes, the detectives see
a similar profile emerging for these murders.
- It's another elderly woman known to the killer.
Though, in this case, there is no sexual assault motive.
- [Narrator] Arkansas detectives allow Rummel
to take a first crack at interviewing Reager.
Rummel is nervous, but he thinks back to
an earlier conversation he has with Jud Ray,
the FBI profiler who's taken over the case from Douglas.
- And he told me, he said, you know,
"When you interview Bill, take your time.
Just go over, you know, just don't push him,
don't push him, and he'll talk to you,
but plan on a couple days of interviewing.
Interview him for a couple hours, then let go, you know,
and take it real easy,
'cause he wants to talk to you and he really wants to.
His conscience really still will bother him
about what he did to that little girl."
- [Narrator] After years without a break in the case,
detectives finally have
the opportunity to interview a suspect.
Rummel is convinced Reager is the killer,
but he'll need to remember
his training and Agent Ray's advice
if he hopes to get a confession.
- Reager's nervous, but seems cooperative.
However, once Rummel brings up the Swanson Motel murders,
Reager denies having anything to do with them.
Rummel knows that it may take time
to break the suspect down.
He does something he's never done before in an interview.
He reveals the FBI profile to Reager.
- I said, "Look at this, Bill.
Look at what the FBI says about you."
And he goes, "What?"
You know, and so I went over it with him,
and during the interview, I said,
"You know what's bothering you?
It's the fact that you did what you did to that little girl.
That's what's bothering you."
Because the profile itself said
he feels justified with what he did with grandma,
but not to the little girl.
That's why he covered her up.
I said, "But, Bill, we're gonna have to get,
you know, some closure here.
You're gonna have to tell me what you did."
And he looks down and he says,
"Okay, you want me to tell you I did it?"
He holds up his hands
and he says, "I did it," just like that.
He just says, "I did it."
And I said, "Thank you, Bill.
Now, let's talk about the case.
Let's talk about the details."
And he told us. He told us everything.
He just flat-out confessed.
- [Narrator] Reager tells detectives that,
on November 15th, 1981,
he had dinner with Priscilla, Melody, and Danelle.
Priscilla had cooked for a dozen people,
many of whom were residents of the Swanson Motel.
- Reager confesses he returned to the office later
to talk to Priscilla about dating Melody,
but when Priscilla refused to help him, he grew agitated
and struck her.
(tense music)
He says he was upset with Melody
and that's when he saw her daughter
sleeping in the back room.
- [Narrator] Reager is meticulous
in the details of his account,
noting what the victims were wearing, the weapons he used,
including the piece of wood and the electrical cord,
even recalling the missing items
like the picture of the victims
and the platter hanging on the wall.
- However, when it comes time
to confess to the rape of a child,
he clams up and doesn't want to talk.
The FBI profile indicates that
he is ashamed of the sexual assault,
so this isn't a surprise to detectives,
but they aren't happy with half a confession.
- 'Cause when I asked him what he did, he said,
"I sexually assaulted a little girl."
That's as far as I could go,
where Jerry goes, "You gotta tell us exactly what you did."
- [Narrator] Finally, Reager breaks down
and shamefully admits to raping a child.
As the detectives rise to leave, Reager thanks them.
In total, the confession has only taken
90 minutes to obtain.
- So, we're done with ours.
I come out and I'm pretty pumped.
You know, you can imagine.
We got him and it's on tape and all that kind of thing.
So we go out, and they asked me a couple questions,
and I said, "If you've got things on him,
he's ready to talk."
- [Narrator] With Reager's taped confession,
Dickinson detectives pass him on
to Arkansas detectives for questioning.
- The Arkansas detective
employs a much different interview approach.
Reager refuses to talk or offer any information
and the detective presses the conversation.
- [Narrator] Nevertheless, Arkansas police let it leak
that they have a serial killer in custody.
Suddenly, departments all across the nation are calling,
seeing if they can get Reager
to fit the killer in their own cases.
- Rummel is worried he'll lose his suspect
and it could be years before this case goes to trial.
He calls Jud Ray at the FBI,
hoping to to ensure Reager is tried in North Dakota.
- [Narrator] But with blood in the water
and departments all across the country
wanting a piece of Reager,
it's anyone's guess where and when the killer will be tried.
(somber music)
(suspenseful music)
Chuck Rummel is concerned that, after all these years,
he may not get to try Reager in North Dakota,
but the FBI assures him that
they want one solid conviction,
and given Reager's willing confession
of the Swanson Motel murders,
North Dakota seems the most likely place to try him,
but the Arkansas DA isn't interested in
giving Reager up so easily
and wants to try him in the state.
- The Arkansas district attorney
foolishly overplays his hand.
He calls a defense attorney who takes Reager's case
to give him a piece of his mind,
but when he learns he's not home, he berates his wife
for allowing her husband to defend a man like Reager.
The defense attorney
files a restraining order against the district attorney.
The judge set to hear the matter calls this thing a fiasco,
and then, on September 3rd, 1991, rules that
the murder charges against Reager have to be dropped.
- It was not pretty, but, eventually,
we were able to get him back up to North Dakota.
The governor, Bill Clinton at the time, signed extradition.
- [Narrator] Rummel escorts his prisoner
back to Dickinson, North Dakota to be tried for murder.
The community reaction to the news is shock and disbelief.
Reager has lived among them for years.
Priscilla's widower, Frank Dinkel,
even knows him from their days of working on the oil rigs.
- I mean, it hit the papers for like for a week.
You know, always something about Bill.
It hit the Bismarck Tribune.
It hit Grand Forks, Fargo, all over, you know?
It was a state celebration kind of thing.
- [Narrator] Rummel interviews Melody
to get a fuller picture of
Reager's connection to the family.
Melody shares that, for years,
she's written to her dead daughter,
telling her how much she loves and misses her.
- Melody describes to Rummel
that she didn't like Reager
from the moment she met him in October, 1981.
She knows that he's romantically interested in her,
but she has no reciprocal feelings for him.
She finds him strange and spooky.
She recounts an incident
that happened only days before the murder.
- [Narrator] Melody gets a call on November 13th, 1981
that her daughter is at the motel and crying uncontrollably.
- Danelle tells her mom that
Reager was trying to play with her and another child.
She points to her privates to show how they were playing.
Melody confronts Reager,
but nothing more comes of it at this time.
Melody explains she immediately told police
that she suspected Reager of committing the murders.
However, police never detained Reager
or strongly considered him as a suspect.
- [Narrator] On February 4th, 1992,
William Reager stands before
a Southwest Judicial District court judge
and pleads not guilty on the advisement of his attorney.
- And that's why we made
this big cardboard of 10 to 12 items
that he still remembered, including the clothing they wore,
and the fact that, you know,
he tied 'em up with vacuum cleaner cards,
that kind of thing.
I mean, he remembered all that,
and a lot of that wasn't even ever, you know, broadcast.
- Unfortunately, the fingerprint
that they pulled from the door jamb
does not match Reager's.
Additionally, the DNA samples collected in 1981
are not usable.
- The DNA evidence was ruined
when a freezer went out years before at the state crime lab
where the evidence was stored, so I had nothing to go on.
I had nothing to go on. I had the sticks that were used.
I had the clothes that the victims were wearing.
I had those kind of things,
but I had no evidence that could link him to it.
- [Narrator] On June 9th, 1992,
one week before Reager's trial is set to begin,
Detective Rummel gets an urgent call
telling him to come to the prison
where Reager is being held.
When Rummel arrives, he learns that
Reager has passed away in the night while sleeping,
but Detective Rummel has no lingering doubts
about Reager's guilt
and the confession he willingly provided.
- Reager gives details about the crime scene
that only the killer would know.
Everything he confesses to, including his motive of jealousy
and his interest in Melody,
aligns with the facts of the case.
- [Narrator] The physical evidence
and Reager's knowledge of it
instills confidence in Rummel that he is the right man,
but it's really the FBI profile
that's the piece that finishes the puzzle.
- After the murders,
Reager changes his appearance and moves around frequently.
He eventually kills again,
just like the profile predicted he would.
In Rummel's mind, there is no lingering doubt
William Reager is guilty of
killing Priscilla Dinkel and her granddaughter Danelle.
Reager isn't caught due to physical evidence
like DNA, fingerprints, or eyewitness testimony.
Instead, he's caught by
the new method of FBI criminal profiling.
This is one of the first instances in the United States
where this method was used
to solve a case that had gone completely cold.
- If nothing else,
to give some families of victims some hope.
There are still police departments out there that care
and there are cops out there and investigators
that pursue these things 'til the end
to let them know that it could break
and to give 'em some hope, you know?
And to make sure that
those criminals are always looking over their shoulders.
We might be there to get you next.
That's important. So, you didn't get away with it.
- [Narrator] To this day, we don't know
how many murders Reager is responsible for,
whether the Swanson Motel killings were his first,
and whether the Arkansas killing was his last.
What do we do know is that justice finally caught up to him.
(tense music)
(dramatic music)