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Private Notes
When "48 Hours Mystery" Correspondent Harold Dow died suddenly last month, he was completing more than a year's work on the intricate tale of Rodney Alcala. "48 Hours Mystery" pays tribute to Dow when it broadcasts his final story, "The Killing Game," as its season premiere.
Featuring Dow's exclusive interviews with Alcala's ex-girlfriend, girls Alcala had approached, investigators, and victims' family members, the season premiere will be presented by Harold's nephew, Jay Dow, of WCBS in New York and a contributing correspondent for CBS News.
Alcala was twice convicted and twice sentenced to death for Robin's murder, but the verdicts were both overturned, infuriating Robin's still grieving family. But in the 30 years since Robin's murder, DNA technology had advanced and justice finally caught up with Alcala. He was linked to four other murders, giving weight to what investigators had suspected all along-he was a serial killer.
Los Angeles Prosecutors decided to combine the cases and Alcala stood trial for a third time. Finally, in March 2010, the 40-year saga came to a conclusion. The now 66-year-old photographer, who served as his own attorney, was sentenced to death for the murder, kidnapping and rape of five California women, including Robin Samsoe.
Yet the Alcala case continues today, as police across the country are still trying to identify hundreds of photographs of young women, and even some children, found in Alcala's storage locker. Already other murders in New York and California have been connected to Alcala, with perhaps more to come.
In January 2009, a three-year international manhunt for Dr. Yazeed "Yaz" Essa finally came to a close, as the FBI captured the playboy doctor in the Middle East and returned him to the U.S. to stand trial for his wife's murder. It is a story that Essa's friends say is too bizarre to believe - a young mother poisoned, an upstanding doctor accused, the pursuit of a fugitive across four countries, and an investigation that drew on the resources of law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Only four years earlier, Essa's life had seemed close to perfect. He was a successful doctor and businessman, and had been married for nearly six years to Rosemarie DiPuccio, a nurse. The couple lived in a beautiful home in a Cleveland suburb with their two young children. Then, on Feb. 24, 2005, their happy life came to a crashing halt when Rosemarie, on her way to see her sister, was in a minor car accident. While the 38-year-old did not suffer any physical injuries, she passed out and was brought to a Cleveland hospital. Shortly after, she was pronounced dead.
Correspondent Troy Roberts reports on 48 HOURS MYSTERY "[email protected]".
A man is falsely imprisoned for 26 years due to a cover-up by the Los Angeles Police Department.
On Sept. 27, 1992, 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson, a nursing assistant in Palm Springs, Calif., was running late to work when she missed her bus and accepted a ride from a kind stranger, Andrew Urdiales. So charming was Urdiales, that the next morning she accepted another ride from him without hesitation. Little did she know that this pleasant man was really a serial killer...and that she would be the only one of his victims to survive.
Fifteen years after her attack, Jennifer Asbenson, the sole survivor of serial killer Andrew Urdiales, faced him in a Chicago court speaking not only for herself but for the eight other women whose lives he took. A jury convicted Urdiales and sentenced him to death, marking the end of his deadly spree.
Correspondent Susan Spencer reports on 48 HOURS MYSTERY "The One That Got Away".
Since the sudden death of his wife Kari in April 2006, Matt Baker has gone from grieving husband to a murder suspect maintaining his innocence to convicted killer. And it was his lover, Vanessa Bulls, who revealed the dark secrets that helped put him behind bars. With exclusive interviews, police videos and depositions.
Linda and Jim Dulin are convinced that their daughter, Kari, was murdered by the man they once embraced as a son-in-law: Baptist preacher Matt Baker.
"Kari was a very good minister's wife. Faith was very important in her life," Linda tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty. "This was a man who was capable of the ultimate evil."
Matt has always claimed that his wife committed suicide, just as he told the 911 operator a little after midnight on April 8, 2006.
A predator who killed two girls admits that he would kill again.
Before Colton Harris-Moore became famous as an international fugitive, before he attracted more than 100,000 fans on Facebook and before he stole a single airplane, he was one very unpopular teenager back in his hometown of Camano Island, Wash.
"Colton Harris Moore is nothing but a thief, a criminal," Camano resident Josh Flickner says. "He's not Robin Hood. He's not Jesse James. He's not James Bond."
Colton's crime spree on this tranquil island began when he was just 10 years old. He soon advanced to breaking into homes, using stolen credit cards and stealing boats. Now, at age 19, he has a $10,000 price tag on his head and a bounty hunter on his trail.
On Sunday, Aug. 22, 2004, after a family birthday celebration that included their son, Christopher, his girlfriend, Juliette, and family friend Teddy Montoto, Susan and John Sutton retired to separate bedrooms in their Coral Gables, Fla. home.
Susan often slept in the second room because her husband John snored. Little did they know that about four blocks away, there was a man who had driven up with one intention - to kill them both.
Dressed in all black with a Glock 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, the man shot John, then turned to Susan and shot her six times. But he was not done. The gunman turned back to the master bedroom and emptied the gun into John.
Susan Sutton was assassinated in her bed. John Sutton, shot twice in the head, shockingly survived.
Correspondent Troy Roberts reports.
Charlene Hill had lots of plans for the rest of her life.
"A dream… this was Danny and ours dream… we were looking at building our house right here and have the kids come up… look forward to our grandbabies being up here," Charlene Hill says, looking out at the undeveloped land on their ranch.
None of those dreams panned out, because everything changed on Nov. 14, 2006, when she shot her husband, Danny, to death.
"I relive that night so many times….do I wish I could change it. Oh, its just rough… its rough knowing this was our dream and he's gone," she tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Richard Schlesinger.
He's stumbled into the backyard, bleeding heavily from a single stab wound to the chest.
Within hours, Peter Franklin was dead, and his wife, Sandra, was charged with his murder.
"I am absolutely not a murderer," Sandra tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Peter Van Sant. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't cry… I still love my husband…"
But what could have brought a loving relationship to this?
Sandra and Peter's love affair had started nine years earlier. "He was just a - a fantastic figure of a man to me," she says.
After several failed relationships, they both felt they'd finally met the love of their lives.
A young mother vanishes... Did one man's deception lead to murder? Maureen Maher reports.
An alluring woman who could charm anyone into doing anything... even murder? Erin Moriarty reports.
When a woman is murdered, secret photos reveal clues about her killer. Richard Schlesinger reports.
A celebrity dog trainer is murdered. Now, exclusive interviews reveal the truth behind the crime. "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
A celebrity dog trainer is murdered. Now, the conclusion as exclusive interviews reveal the truth behind the crime. Peter Van Sant reports.
Two unsolved Hollywood murders and the trail that leads through the Playboy Mansion and Wall Street. Peter Van Sant reports.
Bill Ferguson is a driven man. A real estate broker, nothing in his life ever prepared him for what he is doing now: trying to solve a 10-year-old murder.
"I started going to the crime scene within a week of the arrest... I'd go down at 1:30 [a.m.], stay down 'til 3 o'clock," Ferguson tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty. "I would sit in different spots of the whole crime scene, from different angles. I'd do it every Halloween for sure."
Ferguson says he's gone down to the crime scene "40, 50 [times] at least."
"What did you know about investigations before this?" asks Moriarty.
"Well, I used to watch 'Perry Mason,'" he replies.
One thing Ferguson knows for sure, he says, is that his 26-year-old son, Ryan, is innocent.
"I wanna be exonerated," Ryan tells Moriarty. "I want everyone to know that I have absolutely nothin' to do with this case."
Ryan is Bill Ferguson's only son.
"We've always been close. Really, really close," Ferguson says. "He never gave us trouble at all."
Ryan had just turned 21 in 2005, when he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years. The key witness against him is his high school friend, Chuck Erickson, who told the court that he and Ryan robbed and murdered 48-year-old Kent Heitholt.
It began in 2007, with break-ins where the main thing stolen was women's lingerie. Few people reported the thefts, and by 2009, local police had more pressing concerns - two women had been sexually assaulted. Speaking for the first time on television, one of them, Laurie Massicotte, says she was fast asleep when the intruder struck.
"He just said, 'Trust me, you don't want to see me,'" Massicotte tells "48 Hours."
The intruder blindfolded Massicotte and beat her. Her ordeal went on for three-and-a-half hours.
"I could hear him. And he - he's putting the blinds down," she continues. "And I kept thinking, 'before he leaves here, this guy is going to kill me.'"
Two months later, 38-year-old Corporal Marie-France Comeau was killed in the nearby town of Brighton. Two months after that, another local woman, 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd, went missing.
On Feb. 7, 2010, at 3 p.m., Canadian Air Force Colonel Russell Williams has agreed to come in for a chat with police after being stopped at a roadblock.
Talking with the cops may turn out to be the most fateful decision of the respected colonel's entire life, but you'd never know it.
Cop: Do you have your own lawyer?
Colonel: A realty lawyer but no, I don't have a lawyer! (laughs)
The police aren't interested in real estate. They're focused on an ongoing crime spree near the sleepy little town of Tweed, Ontario, several hours from Toronto.
Cop: We're looking at first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, forcible confinement.
Colonel: Uh huh...
It has been two-and-a-half years since Casey Anthony was first arrested and charged with murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in a criminal case that has become a public obsession.
"The evidence is overwhelming," Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says. "No one else in the world could've done this except Casey Anthony."
"People hate her!" Casey's father, George Anthony, told "48 Hours" in 2009.
"She's been portrayed as an evil person," added Cindy Anthony.
Casey was a 22-year-old single mother. She and her daughter lived with Casey's parents, George and Cindy, in their Orlando home.
"Casey was a good mom," Cindy said. "Casey put her daughter first."
The little girl was described by most everyone around her as incredibly cute, happy and outgoing.
"She was just a beautiful child," said Cindy.
But Caylee disappeared that summer after Casey took her daughter and left her parents' home. Even more startling, is that Casey waited an entire month before revealing to her family and authorities that her child was missing - a fact that sent the local media into overdrive.
Correspondant Troy Roberts reports.
Convicted of murder and sentenced to death - 16 years later students help set him free. Richard Schlesinger reports.
The murder of a young mother goes unsolved for nearly 30 years... until a call to a wrong number - and new evidence - expose the killer. Erin Moriarty reports.
Three Texas housewives use Facebook to investigate their friend's disappearance. "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Maureen Maher reports.
Three murders from Chicago to Los Angeles and an alleged serial killer on the run. Who's killing beautiful young women? Maureen Maher reports.
Did an anesthesiologist gas his wife to death? Peter Van Sant reports.
A real estate mogul charged with swindling $40 million is murdered. Erin Moriarty reports.
Colton Harris-Moore - the infamous 20-year-old whose international crime spree made him an unlikely folk hero and attracted the attention of authorities who pursued him for over two years in three countries - pleads guilty to seven federal charges. Peter Van Sant has the latest developments in the case of the Barefoot Bandit.
