cover of episode Rodney Alcala:The Dating Game Killer

Rodney Alcala:The Dating Game Killer

2024/11/14
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AI Deep Dive AI Insights AI Chapters Transcript
People
A
Alcala
C
Christine Thornton的妹妹
R
Robin Samsoe的朋友Bridget Wilvert
R
Robin Samsoe的母亲
T
Tally Shapiro
前侦探Steve Hodel
前洛杉矶警官Chris Camacho
旁白
知名游戏《文明VII》的开场动画预告片旁白。
目击者
Topics
警方在1968年逮捕了Rodney Alcala,但他因证据不足而被释放。此后,Alcala犯下多起谋杀案,受害者包括空姐Cornelia Crilley和艺术家Ellen Hover。在1979年,Alcala绑架并杀害了12岁的Robin Samsoe,最终被捕。由于证据不足,Alcala的死刑判决被推翻,案件多次重审。最终,通过DNA技术和证人证言,Alcala被判犯有多起谋杀罪,并被判处死刑。Alcala的案件反映了司法系统在追捕连环杀手方面的挑战,以及DNA技术在破案中的重要作用。 警方在调查过程中面临诸多挑战,包括证据不足、证人缺失、技术限制等。尽管如此,执法人员从未放弃追捕Alcala,最终通过不懈努力,将Alcala绳之以法。 Alcala的案件也凸显了连环杀手的狡猾和危险性,以及他们如何利用自己的魅力和伪装来逃避法律制裁。 受害者家属在漫长的等待中承受了巨大的痛苦和煎熬,但他们从未放弃寻求正义。 本案中,DNA技术发挥了至关重要的作用,帮助警方将Alcala与多起谋杀案联系起来,最终促成了他的定罪。 本案也反映了冷案侦破的难度和重要性,以及科技进步对冷案侦破的促进作用。 Alcala的案件提醒人们,要提高警惕,保护自己和家人的安全,避免成为连环杀手的受害者。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why did Rodney Alcala's first conviction for Robin Samso's murder get overturned?

The conviction was overturned because the jury had been improperly told about Alcala's prior sex crimes, including the attack on Tali Shapiro.

Why did Rodney Alcala plead guilty to the murders of Cornelia Quilly and Allan Hover in New York?

Alcala's guilty plea in New York was a surprise, as he had previously denied every crime he was accused of. It brought closure to the families who had lost hope that these cases would ever be solved.

Why did Rodney Alcala's third trial for Robin Samso's murder include four other cases?

DNA linked Alcala to three additional murders in Los Angeles, and the killing of a fourth woman was also tied to him. Prosecutors decided to try all five cases together.

Why did Kathy Thornton submit her DNA to a national database of missing persons?

Kathy Thornton submitted her DNA to a national database of missing persons in the hope that if her sister Christine's DNA was ever submitted, they could be matched.

Why did the Wyoming detective Jeff Shema find it significant that the crime lab had saved skin tissue and bone fragments?

The saved skin tissue and bone fragments allowed for the processing of mitochondrial DNA, which could reveal a match with siblings, leading to the identification of the victim.

Why did the prosecutor decide to charge Rodney Alcala with first-degree murder for Christine Thorn's death?

The prosecutor decided to charge Alcala with first-degree murder after Alcala admitted to being present at the scene and claimed Christine was alive when he left, which was considered a confession.

Chapters
El episodio comienza con la historia de Tali Shapiro, de 8 años, quien fue secuestrada, violada y casi asesinada por Rodney Alcala en 1968. Alcala escapó y se convirtió en uno de los más buscados por el FBI. Más tarde se matriculó en una escuela de cine en Nueva York, donde asesinó a Cornelia Michel Riley. A pesar de una serie de crímenes, Alcala apareció en "The Dating Game" y continuó evadiendo a las autoridades.
  • Rodney Alcala secuestró, violó y casi asesinó a Tali Shapiro en 1968.
  • Alcala escapó a Nueva York y se matriculó en una escuela de cine.
  • Cornelia Michel Riley fue estrangulada y mordida por Alcala.
  • Alcala apareció en "The Dating Game" a pesar de ser un asesino en serie.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

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to.

I was out doing my patrols. We just started our shift that day, and I was driving down sunset bull of war. And I received a call, a beige color car with no license plates. Following this, a little girl .

in s in nineteen sixty eight, eight year old telesp o was walking to school when a car hold up alongside her good some .

merit in the witness sees a little girl, a little late year old ali, get in the car, thinks it's suspicious, follows him and put the call into L A P, D.

Former law s. Angeles police officer Chris commotio reached the location and knocked on the door.

I said, police officer, open the door. I need to talk to you. This male appeared at the door.

I will always remember that face at that door. Very evil face. He says, I am in the shower.

I I got ta get dressed. And I told him, okay, you got ten seconds spying. I kick the door. The image will be with me forever. We could see in the kitchen that there was a body on the floor, a lot of blood.

They say picture, says a thousand words in that image of those little White married jeans on that floor with that metal bar that he used to struggle with. And that puddle blood IT just looks like too much blood to come out of a tiny, little later like that.

There was no breathing. We all thought he was dead.

Commercial began frantically searching the house for her attacker. Moments later, he walked back into the kitchen and witnessed a miracle.

SHE was gagging and trying to breathe. And I thought one for the good guys she's going to .

make IT clinging to life. Tally was rushed to the hospital.

He and he hadn't not been for that police. After a toley peer would died on writing calls, kitchen floor.

he started searching the resident. There was a lot of photograph equipment, and all of us were amazed at the amount of photographs that he had. The european gg. Girls.

very Young girl, we found .

lot of picture ID of iranian color. He was a student. U. C, L, A.

The suspect, twenty five year old rodney a. Cola, had slipped through the officer's fingers when I kicked .

in the front door. The suspect went on the .

back door without cola in the wind. Former detective Steve hotel was grasp at the air.

But we kept coming up empty back then. You know, we didn't have a lot of the forensic you have today. He was a snake.

Ed charming, I went to talk to his professor at ucl. A, he says rada cala wouldn't hurt anybody. He's a great guy. He truly believed that. And a lot of people in.

Peter van sand reports rodney color the killing game.

Rodney alcala was born in santino, texas in one thousand forty three. His father abandoned the family when he was Young. At seventeen, a cola enlisted in the army, but there were problems, allegations of sexual misconduct, a nervous breakdown. The army discharged him.

The military realized, making sixty three, that they had him, that he was a sexual period.

In one thousand nine sixty nine, the FBI put rotten or color on its most wanted list. But finding or color was going to be no simple matter.

Radio call, after raping and almost killing telesp o, he fled to new york. He made friends. He, he charmed people he got in to. And why you film school?

None of this fellow students suspected that they're popular. Classmates had a double life, which had the makings of a film itself, a horror film, three years after his attack on toy shop O, A colors dark side once again emerge.

Beautiful face, SHE Carried herself extremely sophisticated dly.

His next victim, cornea Michael Riley, a twenty three year old flight attendant for T. W. A.

I was living with her temporarily while he was getting her own apartment ready around the corner to share with another student us.

Curly had spent the day movie, and when borstal came home from work, he was surprised to find her door locked and no one answered the phone.

When her boyfriend was trying to reach her and was unable, the police came in a horrible scene.

Prosecutor molson mortuus was struck by the ferocious nature .

of the killing. SHE had been a SHE was strangled with a nion starting, and there was a bite mark on her breast.

Obviously the cause of that.

the strangulation she's bound, she's held, there are something stopped in a mouth, obviously keep her from screaming.

The police focused in on cornelius murder, but with almost two thousand killings in new york in in one thousand hundred and seventy one.

investigators could not close the case. They had no real leads. We didn't have the forensic tools that we have, uh, today. So they did what they could, but I never went any place in the case, just went cold. And I stayed cold for forty years.

Rodney alcala wasn't even a suspect. After the murder, he changed his name to john burger and move to new hampshire. He landed a job as a councillor at an arts and drama camp for girls. There he made a lasting impression on the campers.

Two girls went to their local post office, and they look, and there was radio al colors photo on the FBI ten, most one a list. They'd looked up and said, all my gosh, that's mister burger.

They reported to the dean. He calls the authorities. They arrested him, taken into custody. I get a phone call from the FBI saying, we've got your man in custody. He's already to be picked up.

Police in california were eager to charge him for telesp OS brutal assault, but her family had left the country with no main witness. Prosecutors had no choice but to offer our color a deal, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of child molestation and register as a sex offender. He took the deal, but the judges sentence stunned those work. In the case.

he received one year, the life, and the poor word, let him go after thirty four months after what he did, the toy superior.

So less than three years later, rodney alcala was a free man. Again.

I was clever gas in the sample this. So I just amazed me.

And a cola had no trouble charming his way back into the swing of things.

He was hired by the los Angeles times to work as as a type setter. He took photos at weddings, and he was a register sex offender during all of that.

and nobody ever checked. Even worse, he was chosen to be a contestant on the dating game.

but dating the bachelor .

of its day. What no one knew was that roddy's alcohol was already a serial killer. Please welcome ralco.

From all outward appearances, rio cola was a ham.

I'm called the banana and I look really good charme.

smart Young man.

But I like the nas. So we'll take one. Number one.

number one, alright.

that wouldn't heard to fly.

The woman who want a date with him ended up backing out, saying he found him creepy.

Come on over here.

Her intuition probably saved her life. Others would not be so fortunate.

We will never know how many women are lucky, because every woman across that guys pair was a potential victim.

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IT was nineteen seventy seven. Rodney alcala was out of prison and living in new york. Bad news for the new york cops who already had their hands full. A homegrown cereal killer known as sun of sam was terrorizing the city.

He struck again over the weekend the killer six victim.

Police say they are nowhere near solving the case. By this time, the cornelia quilly case had been called for six years with no suspects. Rodney alcala was only in the city a week before adding to the new york crime wave. His next victim, a twenty three year old musician and artist named Allan hover.

Allen was a sweet, gentle soul .

I need to find. Berg and elan hover met as teenagers.

Allan was a very dear college friend to be room together for some time. SHE never confused what he had with who he was. Elan hover .

came from a prominent show business family. Her father owned the fame hollywood nigh club ceos. Her god fathers were Sammy Davis junior and dean margin.

Her mom called me and said, I need to have you heard from Allen? And I said, no. He said, think hard, nobody can find Allen. And I didn't think anything of IT until I hit the newspapers.

Her family's high profile made the story front page news as the nypd kept up the hunt for her. That detective with a great .

job for missing person's case was a lot of calls, he didn't, a lot of work.

lot of whorter decor ves. They were on to something when they found an important clue in her apartment.

Alan hover had marked on her calendar that SHE was going to see someone named john burger on the date bat SHE disappeared.

Remember, alcoa had been using the name john burger, but at the time the connection was never made.

Her body wasn't found until a year later. Buried on the grounds of the films memorial hospital in west chester, near the rockefeller estate.

Until they actually found her, there was always a glimmer of hope. Once they found her body, that was that Allen's .

body was .

so decomposed, police had to use dental records to identify her.

Based on the autopsy, they declared a homicide. There was a suspect in the murder fellow that they believe was the last person that he was seen.

What could that fellow have been? A cola Allen had written his allies, john burger, in her calendar. Alcoa, meanwhile, had left new york and was on his meandering road trip back to california.

He was constantly in predatory mode, that is, behavior that involves hunting human beings. And that's part of a serial sexual killer that is often as exciting as the actual homicide and sexual assault.

At the same time, rodney alcala was on the road, a twenty nine year old woman from texas, Christine ruth threaten, was traveling through the west with her boyfriend. Her sister Cathy was eleven years Younger.

Chris was a free spirit kind of goal, so he always was up for anything.

In the spring of one thousand hundred and seventy seven, Christine was heading to montana with her boyfriend to pan for gold. And SHE had big news.

SHE let my mom know that .

he was going to be having a baby. And then nothing more was heard.

Coffee immediately feared the worst. Christine and her boyfriend had a stormy relationship.

SHE had been abused by him. We knew that. I always thought that he had done something to her.

Soon after Christine disappeared, Cathy began searching for answers. SHE undertook a systematic effort to track Christine and her boyfriends whereabouts that would last almost forty years through marriage, motherhood, divorce and a career. Cathy contacted police departments, federal agencies, hospitals and kept copies of every phone call and letter.

This was a letter I sent .

to the FBI. I contacted .

the department of health and human services. They say a check at this address failed to reveal in a contact with Christine thorn, the social security administration. I contacted them asking if there was any employment record and there has never been any employment history.

You know, I think the message was kind of clear. Everything was, no, we don't know. We have nothing .

looking back .

through this. It's like, yeah, I was doing me in the face.

SHE was not alive. Caffey didn't know the name rotini or color, but one day he would.

Hear more about the psychology of a sexual serial killer now on facebook at forty eight hours.

IT was the spring of nineteen nineteen seventy nine. Roden alcala had been back in california for almost two years, and a twelve year old, Robin samsu, was enjoying the southern california beach .

life we just lived to to have fun. Bridget .

wilbert was Robin's best friend.

Everybody could be complaining about being bored and mean. Robin would find ourselves doing cart wills and backward .

s the other love of Robin's life was her mom.

Marian SHE was the most loving child. I could have everything he did, he did to please me.

On june twenty eighth, one thousand hundred and seventy nine, Robin was going to start her first day of work, answering phones at the ballet studio in exchange for lessons. But first he planned to play on the beach for a few hours with bridget.

I can definitely see a gentlemen with dark care. I mean, he he honed in on us like, really like a, like a shark in the water, honing in on a seal and he goes, can I take your girl's pictures? And Robin goes, sure. And all of a student out of nowhere pops up, jackie Young, my neighbor.

you know, because bridget .

is everything OK are you girls? All right? And man, he he .

took .

that camera, turned his head down. And you can almost see, like smoke, common office dresses. He just, he was gone.

Robin in, bridget turned to go back home.

and Robin had thrown her beach, told everything in to her bag, and she's like one get going. And I go to take my bike and don't stop.

That was the last time anyone saw Robin alive. Robin's ballet teacher called when he did not arrive for her lesson later that day, her family immediately called nine one one.

IT was a very, very most horrifying time of all. Know, not knowing police continually .

question the one person they thought might know where Robin could have gone. Her best friend bridget .

and I I said, I go. IT was the mean that man that took picture .

on july second, twelve days after Robin last said goodbye to her friend and wrote off on her bike, detectives found the body of a child.

Let's go here. He said, we can do that. I said, that's my baby. Of course, I can see why not? He said, because IT took us three days to identify, so it's wrong with you people, little girls with long grand hair disappear, that he took her three days and shoot my shoulders. And if two become down his face, tourists, there was no hair.

A fire crew conducting routine fire prevention maintenance found robbin's remains in a remote location more than forty miles from where he was last scene.

There were twelve days, the animals to, and job remains. By the time the fire actually found her body, SHE was .

just bones. The .

pressure was on to find the killer. Bridges description resulted in this composite sketch, which was released to the media all over southern california.

His poor officer saw that and and called the detectives and said, look, there's a guy that you to be on my k load a you really need to take a look at him. His name is right or IT .

had been nearly eleven years since alcala had left eight year old token ship pero for dead, but alcala was easy define. This time he lived with his mother in montreal park, a stones thrown from the mountains where robbins remains we're located.

They learned that he had no about that he nobody could account ers were about to .

the time he was the perfect suspect. Rodney alcala was arrested on july twenty fourth and charged with the kidnap and murder of Robin samso. Detective pat ellis said honey ton beach police got an unexpected tip when our collar sister came to visit her brother in jail. The conversation was being recorded.

On only mentions him having a stories like in seattle, washington. The caps don't know about that mean favor. Good stuff out of there. Get IT good to clear IT out.

But what our color didn't know was that police had found a receipt for the locker during a search of his home at the time of his arrest.

They be here there, okay? And they get inside. There's the model load.

Hundreds of, not thousands of of these different images. And there are dozens upon dozens of these Young women that in in the pictures clearly are in positions of supreme vulnerability with real.

Police learned alcoa had rented the storage facility and moved his belongings there nine days after Robin sam SOS remains were discovered.

Very under all this stuff was this tiny, little silver g filled with hearings.

Alcoa claim those were his earrings. But when police showed the jewelry to robbin's mother, SHE recognized a pair of gold ball starts, but SHE said Robin often borrowed.

So at that point, um those are all the nuts and balls that you need for successful prosecution.

Nearly one year after Robin sam SOS murder, prosecutors were ready. IT was february nineteen eighty, rodney alcala went on trial. Over the course of two thousand .

and half months, there were almost fifty witnesses to testify. That was a very long, very difficult case.

The jury convicted or cola and sentenced him to death support .

exchange for my daughter's life.

but maybe to save someone else is being gone.

But the relief would be short lived today in a five to one decision, the california state supreme court rule that rodney out kala did not receive a fair trial. The jury had been improperly told about alos prior sex crimes, including the attack on the decision, would devastate Robin's mother. But the ordeal was just beginning.

you know, is only one perpetrator, the little stone. But the ripples keep going. There's victims and victims and victims and victims.

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The sam saw family was steadfast in the face of a second trial for the murder of Robin. They demanded justice.

He killed my child.

my job. You know.

six years after the first verdict, a clean cut rodney alcohol was convicted a second time. And again, the sentence was death with .

the jury find the defendant rodney James, or color healthy of the crime of the. Death is the only .

penalty that ever be rendered in .

case this as this, a cola had been on sand quinton's death row since one thousand and eighty. Now, with a second conviction and a second depth sentence, he was prepared to appeal all over again.

He was never really feeling safe that he was locked up because you always thought there was a chance to go free.

In two thousand, one twenty two years after he killed Robin, sam saw a federal appeals court overturned rodney alcala sentence for a second time based on evidence he didn't get to present, there would be a new trial for alcohol. Now in his sixty for Robin's sam SOS family, IT was unbearable. We've gone .

through a lot of hell because that animal. Let me know that the .

path to justice .

for Robin samsung would take almost a decade more. In new york city, thirty nine years since the murder of cornelia quilly and thirty three years since Allan over was killed, cold case detectives were primarily able to identify rodney alcala as the killer of both women.

The strongest link was the fingerprint. There was a letter that was lodged underneath cornelia quill's body, and there was a fingerprint developed from the outside of that envelope, which was unmatched for many years. And finally, through the fbs database, there was a match.

IT was a significant piece of evidence, but not enough .

standing alone. Equally incriminating was the evidence left on her body.

There was by mark, evidence where he had bitten her breast.

His dental impression is the one that on her body.

And of course, we looked at all of his other cases to see similarities in sexual murder he had committed to decided we had enough .

evidence in Allen hovers case investigators. Now new john burger was rodney alcala, and he had been seen near the rock fellers states where her body was found.

I think SHE was adopted in manhattan and ultimately killed up there.

We had a witness who saw somebody who look like rodney cola at that time period with a woman who looked like Allan over. The man was Carrying a camera bag just like a called did.

But the manhattan prosecutors would have to wait for california's third trial for robbin sam SOS murder in orange county. Assistant da mt. Mercy was ready to go to court when there was a stunning development.

DNA linked alcala to three loss sanger's murder, jill baron, georgia, Vicky and Charlotte lamb. The killing of a fourth la. Woman, jill parental, was also tied to him.

You write, at that moment, we realized that not only is right oca vicious murder in our case, but in fact, he is the serial killer that we always suspected him to be.

In a highly unusual maneuvre, the california prosecutors decide to try all five cases together. A bizarre looking roddy alcala would serve as his own attorney.

Seven nine rovin samso d like riggin wilder's apartment, there is no Better forum than to be center stage in court as your own attaching. And you cross examine the witnesses, you're like god. In that courtroom.

alcala even called Robin samso s mother to the stand.

That was one of the harder things that i've ever had doing my life.

Having him has me questions. Desperate to impeach marian's character, alcala confronted her about how during the first trial, SHE had reportedly brought a gun to court. SHE didn't deny .

something between the eyes, if I could.

but then SHE felt Robin's presence always sad.

I melter shampoo. And I felt this one of my hand, and I couldn't get my hand out .

of my purse for the third time. Robin sam says family waited as a jury decided rodney or colors fate. This time, there were four other families waiting with them.

One of the many things that hurts me is that that was the last face he saw, and that bothers me because he's so ugly and he's so evil.

When the jury reached a verdict, IT was a relief to the families who had been waiting for justice for so long. The sam saws hoped that this would finally be the end.

We, the jury find the defendant rodney James, or color, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree victim, Robin c. Samso.

right OK old, absolutely one hundred percent deserves to die for .

what he did in a separate penalty phase, the prosecution called to the stand a ghost from his past.

Many of is tOliver. Pero, i'm one of rotor us first victims and one of the only living victims.

I should .

have stopped with me. Why in the world are there so many other victims? When IT was unknown fact, what he did to mean.

rodney color, addressing the same jury that convicted him of murder, makes an unusual plea for clemency.

Let me put the death penalty in perspective for you. If you desire to join in the killing of a human being, you in the families of the victims will have to wait at least fifteen to twenty years while the case slowly turns to the applying process.

He wanted to plan our logur song else's restaurant. And there's a part in that song where he talks about wanting to kill people. And he played that incredibly for the jury.

Q, Q, Q, Q.

I call us perverse closing argument did not sweig the jury.

We, the jury determined that the penalty to be imposed upon defendant roddy James, or color, to be death.

rodney .

alcala, had been on death row for more than thirty years now. Convicted of five murders. IT was unlikely he could win another appeal. With the california cases settled, the new york prosecutors were ready for him, but they were not expecting what would happen next.

He've came back to new york in june of twenty twelve, and by december he plead guilty.

IT was a surprise. IT was a surprise that he pleaded guilty because he had denied um every crime he was ever accused of.

Manhattan district attorney cyrus vance ced junior, announced alcohol sentence to concurrent prison terms of twenty five years to life for both families who had lost all hope that these cases would ever be solved. The please by rodney cola. And today's sentencing brings closure to painful chapters in their lives.

The judge cried during the sensing and and marth. And i've been in this business for over thirty five years each, and i've never seen a judge cry during a sentencing.

As was agreed upon, alcala was returned to send quinton s. Death row.

I got a telephone call from Robin samso s. Mother and he said he was so grateful um that we were doing this is such a comfort to that regardless of what might happen to the california cases if for some reason he should get out. He's coming back to new york and he's gone to serve twenty five to life.

Both the new york and california prosecutors are haunted by the question, are there other victims out there?

He criss cross the country, west coast, east coast, east coast, west coast, crossed through a lot of states, and i'm sure there are victims of those states.

They just have to be found.

How come he hasn't contacted us? That's not like her.

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Roti, or cola, had been convicted of seven murders and was facing five separate death penalty. Kathy thought, who had spent the last thirty nine years trying to track down her missing sister. Christine had never heard of alcoa, but her son did IT would change Kathy's quest forever .

the killing game tonight's forty eight hours mystery.

In twenty thirteen, happy son had watched a porting get hour story on alcoa that LED him to its website and a series of photos taken by our color of uni dentists ed women.

I got an email from my son that I saw these pictures. Take a look, if you'd like.

happy. Scrolled through the images. SHE kept stopping at one of them, a picture of a beautiful woman on the back of a motorcycle.

I said, yeah, that sure looks like Chris. Then I saw her little toe, her baby toe. And that's one thing I always remembered about Chris, was her little baby toe was different IT IT hooked. I just saw that tall, and I said, oh yeah, that's Chris.

Google in the name rodin, alcala Cathy's hard almost stopped. Caffey now believed her sister had been traveling with a notorious serial killer, fearing the worst but still wanting answers. Cafe submitted her own DNA to a national database of missing persons. If her sisters s DNA was ever submitted, they could be matched. Hundreds of miles away, jeff shema, a wyoming detective, was working on a very tough cold case they referred .

to my case is granger Greta, because there was an uni dense fied female that was found in granger, welcoming back in ninety, eighty two, there were a lot of Ariel photos and photos from the scene when the .

body was found. IT was a desolate area, county prosecutor Daniel era mos py recalled. His predecessors had tried everything to help the victim.

The school was intact. And so the one mistake crime lab was able to have an artist come in and use the school has a form of of recreating what this victim look like.

More than thirty years had passed without a leave. All shimon could do was study the old files with a new set of eyes.

The bones were found next to clothing. The bones had been pull apart, presumably by scavenger animals. SHE been out there about five, six years. IT was the body of a twenty five to thirty five year old female. They also told investigators at that time that he was also appropriate six months pregnant.

Shaman was blown away when he found the wyoming crime lab had saved skin tissue and bone fragments.

And all we got to do is to get the ball rolling with senate to the proper authorities to start processing IT for um any DNA specifically more control DNA .

that's DNA from the mother's side of the family siblings would be revealed as a match. I honestly .

thought I would be ten, twenty years retired before I even receive a phone call.

Sand had less than a year later jeff got the oraculous news. There was a match between Kathy thornton and the on identified phone.

I believe there was a lot of luck that went into IT that went into this whole case. I believe that's what solved.

That is a lot of luck. After thirty nine years of searching, Cathy found Christine. Her hunt was finally over, and the story of what happened to her sister began to unravel. During the summer of one thousand hundred and seventy seven, Christine split with her boyfriend and had the tragic misfortune of meeting rodney alcohol, their trip to the lonely granger Perry would be Christians last ride.

When you see that photo, there is no doubt that he was having fun. I think he just had no clue what he is. He was thinking what he was capable of doing. So I think you're happy. I'm until the point where you're .

not and at .

that point, there was no no escape where which you go.

The location where the photos taken to the location where Christine's remains were found were within probably just a few yards of each other.

I believe that radio collar killed Christian thorn shortly after that photograph was taken.

but before he would indite alcoa or Chris thorn's murder, prosecutor era mos wanted to interview him. In september twenty sixteen, he flew with the two detectives to california. Frail and in ill health, rodney alcala had been moved from san quinton to the medical unit of corcoran prison outside of fresno.

When when we first arrived at corkery, we talked to some of the security staff. They said that he .

was borderline dementia.

Whatever his condition, he was still being treated like the dangerous serial killer that he was.

We went through numerous stores, numerous gates, to the peach colored .

prison cell .

that looks like something off of a horror movie paints coming off the walls, flies buzz around.

Alcoa is on a bed facing a wall. His feet were sticking out from another nief the sheet and know he had long nails.

We started pull up photographs of the crime scene. He took two seconds to look at that photo, and he said, I know that area.

That's my area. How our color reacted to Christine's photograph was something that detectives will never forget.

IT almost click like that with them, and you could almost tell that he was reliving that that day.

Eventually, he took the photograph set IT on his lap, and he uses index finger and just started tracing her body. Trace your body for probably five minutes. And eventually he said, the paper down flat, and he started tap, tap on the photograph of cristine right over Christine's body, just tap in the photograph.

And eventually the tap at louder, at a louder. He eventually looked at me as he kept tapping on the photograph. And at that point, I honestly thought he provide us more information about Christine.

But IT was a game. Despite his age, his infirmity is close to forty years behind bars. Alcoa was still the mastery manipulator he'd always been.

He was very, even kill, very the only time he would show any type of a further in his voice would be when we would point blank ask him, did you kill her? And he would say, no, no, you're is your stupid.

And then when I asked him what he alive when you left her and he said, yes, he was alive when I left.

That's all the prosecutor really needed to hear the .

fact that he admitted he was there just since IT for me if he could deny killing her all he wants, but the fact that he admitted is, as far as i'm concerned, as a confession, I decided to charge him with first to get murder.

There would be no extradition to wyoming.

He's been in prison since one thousand nine hundred and seventy nine. Why should we give a trip? A good place from astral cola is in the bed we left in.

So alcala was never tried for Christians murder, but Cathy thornton has finally learned what happened to her sister, along with seven other families. SHE has the answer to the question of them. Ever wanted to ask.

how many others are there that no did did the same thing Chris did.

I honestly believe in my mind, in my heart did that there's going to be other victims. Seeing how arrogant he is, no one how h charming he apparently was back in the day. And knowing how smart is, I went double. There's hundred, one hundred and fifty, maybe even two hundred victims out there.

I'm hoping that with this being back in the news that someone might recognize someone in one of those photos like we did.

With his execution suspended by california's death penalty, moratti um rodney called, died of natural causes in two thousand and twenty one .

at age seventy seven.

held, identify other possible victims online that forty eight hours that com.

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In the pacific ocean highway between peru and new zealand lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little like british territory called PK han and IT harbor a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't .

be a girl on pick han once, which the age of ten that was still average IT. They just happened.

And journals, luke Jones. And for almost two years I been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls.

From that can when there's nobody watching, nobody going to report that people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the pic cn trials, i'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, specific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to pick trials exclusively on wondering plus. Join wunder plus in the wondering apple podcasts or spotify.

Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian london blood and garlic bats and cruise er fixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story.

One of the incredible things about, but not only is IT this wonderful snapshot of the sixteen century, but he also has so much resonance today.

The vampire doesn't castle reflection in the mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own stress abilities. From the host and producer of american history tellers and history daily comes the new podcast, the real history of dracula. We'll reveal how author bram stoker raided ancient folklore, exploit Victorian fears around sex, science and religion, and how even today we remain in thrawl to his strange creatures of the night. You can binge all episodes of the real history of dracula exclusively with wondering plus, join wandering plus and the wandering apple podcasts or spotify.