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THE BLACK SUV
Pay attention to this black SUV, it belongs to 24-year-old Amy Lord, a Massachusetts native living in Boston. The vehicle pulls up to a bank. It stops at the ATM. Everything looks normal—until she rolls down the window. Amy isn’t the one driving. The man behind the wheel tries to hide his face from the camera. There’s also something wrong with Amy's face. Her left eye is swollen. The transaction only lasts a few seconds before Amy quickly pulls back. She then shows the driver the money, and the two exit the frame in reverse.
A few minutes later, the SUV stops at the Metro Credit Union. Amy seems more panicked, and her face is in worse shape than before. She looks straight into the CCTV camera. And here again, the pair drives away within seconds. Between 6 and 7 AM, Amy empties her accounts using 5 different ATMs around South Boston. Every time, her face looks more swollen. At 8 AM, her SUV is found ablaze in a parking lot. At 11 AM, her manager reports her missing. With only CCTV footage to guide them, police race to find Amy and stop her kidnapper before he strikes again, but just as the search begins, another woman is found, in a pool of her own blood. Kaylee might be the only one able to stop the South Boston Slasher and find Amy, but first, she has to survive the night.
TROUBLE IN BOSTON
Three months before the attacks, Kayleigh moves to Boston from her small town in Maine. Her best friend offers her a room for the summer, and her mother, Kim, helps her settle in. Yet, Kim worries, as most parents would. Boston is far from Maine, and she can’t shake the feeling that something could go wrong. Three months in, Kayleigh’s balancing an internship, a restaurant job, and field hockey training. So far, the city’s been good to her. But on July 23rd, a chain of events is set in motion, one that will change her life forever.
THE FIRST ATTACK
It’s 4:23 AM. Kayleigh is still asleep. Less than a mile away from her Gates Street apartment, a man randomly attacks a woman right before the sun rises. Alexandra Cruz, a 21-year-old single mother, is on her way to work. Before heading out, she leaves her son with a babysitter. It’s still dark outside. The streets are quiet. She walks along Old Colony Avenue, minutes away from the Dunkin’ Donuts she works at. A man is walking behind her. She doesn’t think much of it—until she feels a hand grab her from behind. Before she can react, he wraps his arm around her neck and begins choking her, dragging her into a nearby parking lot. Alexandra tries to fight him off, but the man starts punching her, and she blacks out. When she wakes up, she’s lying on the ground. Her attacker is crouched nearby, picking up the contents of her purse. By the time the young woman manages to stand up, he’s gone.
Detective McLaughlin from Boston Homicide and Detective Flynn from Southie Police are just getting started with their investigation into Alexandra's attack when even more disturbing news comes in.
WHERE IS AMY ?
Carly and her parents drive all the way from Wilbraham to Boston and meet the detective at Amy's apartment. Most of her belongings are there. There are no signs of struggle or forced entry. Both the police and the Lords are at a loss. But 2 things are missing. Amy’s black Jeep and her wallet. Detective McLaughlin decides to look at Amy’s final bank transactions to try and locate her. What he discovers is disturbing, to say the least. The detective isn’t yet convinced that Alexandra’s attack and Amy’s disappearance are connected, but with both happening so close together, it’s hard to shake the feeling that they might be. While he waits for the various financial institutions to provide him with CCTV footage, McLaughlin tries to explain the situation to the Lords.
WATCHING AMY THROUGH SECURITY CAMERAS
Eventually, the tapes containing the footage start coming in. The first is from Bank of America, timestamped at 6:28 a.m. It shows Amy Lord using the ATM. There’s nothing unusual that could help police find her. Before they can finish their review, another tape, from Citizen Bank, arrives. This one shows a front-facing camera at 6:43 a.m. A black Jeep stops in front of the bank. And something unexpected happens; Amy gets out of her car from the passenger side. While she walks towards the entryway, her vehicle backs up. She isn’t alone — someone else is driving her car. Even stranger, the left side of her face looks swollen. More footage comes in. McLaughlin reviews each frame carefully. The Sovereign Bank tape, at 6:36 a.m., doesn't have a clear view of the driver.
The last two tapes are McLaughlin’s final chance at learning who’s behind the wheel — and they deliver. The Metro Credit Union footage, timestamped at 6:14 a.m., shows Amy’s Jeep turning into the parking lot and stopping at the ATM. Through the glass, the driver can be seen — but he quickly spots the camera, pulls back, and reappears with his face covered. For a split second, he removes his cap, revealing a closely shaven head. On top of the bank footage, Detective Flynn secures video surveillance from a building across the street from Amy’s Dorchester Street apartment. However, before they can investigate any further, detectives are hit with another devastating news. A vehicle found burned beyond recognition earlier that morning in South Boston has just been identified as Amy Lord’s missing Jeep.
A DEVASTATING DISCOVERY
Towards the end of the afternoon, McLaughlin’s worst fears are confirmed. The search for Amy is over, but not in the way anyone had hoped. Detective Flynn is with the Lords when the news breaks. Witnessing their reaction is unbearable, even for a veteran like him. At the scene, McLaughlin’s overwhelmed by what he sees. The young woman he’s been pursuing all day, who was alive just this morning, now lies dead before him — beaten beyond recognition, stabbed over a dozen times, and stripped naked, save for an angel wing necklace she was wearing. The emotional toll is heavy, but McLaughlin can’t dwell on it. There’s a violent killer on the loose, moving too fast for the detective to keep up. He must identify who this man is, prove he’s the same attacker who went after Alexandra Cruz earlier that morning, and stop him before he strikes again. To accomplish this, McLaughlin requests the footage covering the streets between where the first assault happened and Amy’s apartment, hoping the cameras can reveal the path the killer took and maybe even catch his face.
KAYLEIGH’S ATTACK AND HOSPITAL RACE
By nightfall, the murder of Amy Lord dominates the news. Police warn women to stay inside or walk in pairs when moving around South Boston. However, Kayleigh Ballantyne has been working late in Cambridge, unaware of the panic that is taking over her neighbourhood. On her way home, she takes the T to Broadway. From there, she has less than a mile to walk back to her apartment. By 11:45 p.m., she’s only a block away. What happens next isn’t immediately clear. Kayleigh makes it home, but somewhere between the building’s entrance and her apartment door, she’s violently attacked. When her roommate opens the door, there’s blood everywhere. Kayleigh is on the floor, barely alive.
Far from Boston, in rural Maine, Kayleigh’s mother, Kim, is woken up by a call in the middle of the night. With her daughter’s life hanging by a thread, Kim rushes toward Boston. The two-hour drive feels endless, her mind constantly looping back to the worst-case scenario. Back in South Boston, Detective Bobby Flynn walks up Telegraph Street, where Kayleigh’s attacker fled, leaving behind a trail of blood. He and McLaughlin have already spotted a few security cameras in and around the area. From what they’ve gathered, their suspect is a young man in his 20s, with multiple tattoos, wearing a tank top and hat. After nearly twenty hours chasing him through security footage, Flynn feels like they’re finally closing in. But, in fact, the killer is much closer than he ever could have imagined. With lights flashing and sirens wailing, Flynn and his partner rush to Tufts Medical Center. Every second counts. They arrive within minutes and run to Kayleigh’s room. One of the EMTs who heard Kayleigh describe her attacker earlier that night recognizes a man matching her description walking down the hallway. He warns security, and the hospital goes on lockdown.
IDENTIFYING THE BOSTON SLASHER
While Detective Flynn and Kayleigh are at the hospital, Detective McLaughlin is still out on the street, tracking down each and every security camera that could have caught a glimpse of their killer on his way out of Kayleigh’s apartment. He still has the picture of the original suspect from the Alexandra Cruz case in his pocket. But one thing is certain: Flynn won’t let him get close to Kayleigh under his watch. Flynn brings their suspect, now identified as 28-year-old Edwin Alemany, into another room and begins questioning him. He denies everything, fabricates a story about a street fight, and refuses to answer any questions. While this is happening, Kim finally arrives in Boston. She rushes to Tufts Medical Center where police meet her in the lobby and lead her through the hallway. Her daughter is alive, but just like at the cabin in Maine, Kim can’t shake the feeling that this nightmare isn’t over yet.
EVIDENCE, AFTERMATH AND TRIAL
While Flynn stays at Tufts to protect Kayleigh, McLaughlin reviews the CCTV footage collected from the day before. On one of the tapes, Edwin appears just after Amy’s murder—buying gasoline, minutes before police discover her Jeep engulfed in flames. At the gas station, he even crosses paths with an acquaintance. McLaughlin later tracks the acquaintance down, who confirms without hesitation that it was Edwin Alemany. Later, footage shows Alemany spending Amy’s money across the city. He buys a new phone, and signs the paperwork under the alias: ”Slim Shady.” Cameras also catch him buying lottery tickets, beer, cigarettes—even treating his friends to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Footage from after Kayleigh’s attack paints an equally chilling picture. Edwin stops at a gas station, bragging about being in a fistfight—the supposed reason for his bloodied hand. He laughs, putting on a show for the cashier and anyone close by. He then takes a cab to the hospital. Now that McLaughlin has pieced together the entirety of Edwin’s day with surveillance footage, it’s up to forensics to tell the rest of the story. Back at the hospital, Flynn tries to figure out how to break the news to Kayleigh concerning Amy’s fate. Kayleigh didn’t just stop a random attacker, but a serial predator and killer.
HEALING, VERDICT AND FORGIVENESS
Two years after the verdict, Kayleigh struggles to come to terms with what happened. Recovery is slow, and reliving her trauma during the legal procedures nearly breaks her, but thanks to McLaughlin and Flynn’s thorough investigation, the jury reaches a verdict quickly. At the sentencing, Kayleigh finally gets the chance to speak to her attacker.
Over the next few years, life returns to some semblance of normalcy. Kayleigh finishes her studies, Alexandra finds her footing again, McLaughlin’s promoted to head detective, and Flynn retires from the force. A strange bond still unites all of them. And one morning, Flynn receives an unexpected call. For years, Kayleigh’s life has been defined by the hatred she felt toward her attacker. But she now sees that forgiveness is the only way to take that power back.
Related Content
Abducted by the Beauty Queen Killer from malls across America, three young women must survive the unthinkable and become the key to ending a nationwide killing spree: The Case of Tina, Linda & Dawn
Credits:
Written, directed & edited by Alexandre Gendron
Researched by Tiffany Loxton
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader
For more stories like this, subscribe to our YouTube here
Pay attention to the man in this video, as he’s hiding the most disturbing secret.
In the 1980’s tapes like these were used as a dating service. And yet no one knew that this man was, in reality, a serial killer.
It's 1984, in Miami at the Miss Florida beauty pageant. The woman on screen is one of the finalists in the competition. But shortly after, she mysteriously disappears.
EMERGING PATTERN OF MISSING WOMEN
When police began their investigation, they spotted a photographer who was always lurking around the girls, snapping photos of them. Not long before that event, at the Miami Grand Prix, another woman had disappeared.
Detectives are baffled because the same man was seen there too. But this time not as a photographer, but as a race car driver. When the police try to find him, he's already left town. But, by that point it’s already too late to catch him.Young women all around the country are going missing.
What follows is one of the biggest manhunts America has ever seen, but everything will change when one of his victims miraculously survives.
LINDA’S ABDUCTION AND BRAVE ESCAPE
It’s 1984, in Tallahassee, Florida. 19YO Linda, a sophomore at Florida State University, is living the college dream: she has a long-time boyfriend, a passion for her studies, and an unshakable love for the ocean waves along the Gulf Coast. Life, for Linda, feels like one long, beautiful summer.
But on March 20th, just days before her five-year anniversary with her boyfriend, Linda goes out for a quick trip to Governor's Square Mall, blissfully unaware that this errand, will soon take a dark turn. This department store will end up being her last known whereabouts before she vanishes.
12 hours later, when Linda reappears on March 21st, she’s 40 miles away from the mall, barefoot and shaken; she runs up to the front desk of a roadside motel in Bainbridge, Georgia. Seeing her, the night manager freezes. Her voice shakes: she needs help. Moments later, a sheriff’s deputy rushes into the motel. The only words Linda can get out are chilling: “a man kidnapped me and tortured me”. The officer quickly calls for an ambulance, then heads directly to the room she pointed him to. The door creaks open to reveal a grim scene: blood on the carpet, the walls, and torn pieces of duct tape on the floor. He immediately radios for backup and calls in a forensic team. Something violent and disturbing happened here.
Meanwhile, Linda is rushed to Memorial Hospital in Georgia, where, despite her severe injuries, she refuses to stay silent. Word of her remarkable survival spreads quickly through police stations across the state, eventually reaching 2 officers in Miami – almost 500 miles away. When Detective Hanlon and his colleague hear about the perpetrator’s features from the police reports, a chill runs down their spine: he was allegedly tall, well dressed, with a slight accent, and a neat beard and mustache. It's way too familiar. Both men immediately jump on a plane to meet Linda in person, in Georgia– if their hunch is right, this could change everything.
At the Georgia hospital, the officers listen intently to Linda’s account– this is still in the early days of forensic evidence, and her first hand account may be the only thing they have to spark a new lead, but Detective Hanlon is horrified by the details Linda tells them. However, her quick thinking impresses the officers. If their hunch is correct, the man who kidnapped her is exceedingly violent and dangerous, and has a long list of victims before her.
Carefully, they take out a series of pictures and show them to Linda. Without hesitation, she identifies one man: she doesn't know his full name, but the detectives, somehow do: Christopher Wilder. He’s the man they’ve been tracking for several weeks, and now that he’s crossed state lines with Linda, Detective Hanlon knows it’s time to bring in the FBI.
THE FIRST BEAUTY QUEEN VICTIMS
It all started back on March 5th, when 23 year old Elizabeth Kenyon, a Miss Florida finalist, vanished without a trace. Wilder had been dating the young woman at the time of her disappearance, and was conveniently nowhere to be found when detectives wanted to question him. But, Elizabeth wasn’t the first: a week before her disappearance, 20-year-old Rosario Gonzalez, had also been reported missing from the Miami Grand Prix – a race Christopher Wilder participated in.
Back at the hospital, investigators gather more information from Linda. New reports also start coming in concerning missing young women: different towns, different states – but all with the same disturbing pattern.
TINA’S ABDUCTION AND CROSS-COUNTRY CAPTIVITY
It’s now April 4th, 1984. Two weeks after Linda’s abduction – and a month since Wilder has been on police’s radar following the Miami Grand Prix. Across the country, a 16 year-old girl named Tina, is walking through a mall in Torrance, California, determined to find a summer job.
Later that same day, a man comes up to her and starts a conversation. Passersby notice that they don’t seem to know each other, but the interaction seems formal and friendly. They’re then spotted walking in the parking lot, and seconds later, she’s in his car, and the pair disappears. Unbeknownst to her, Christopher Wilder has just found his next victim.
April 5th, the next day. Carol, Tina’s mom, contacts the police and reports her daughter missing. She tells them that Tina hasn't come home from school, and hasn’t been in touch all night. The worried mom also lets them know that Tina has been having boyfriend troubles later, and police in California don't immediately take her disappearance seriously, assuming this might be a petty teenage fight. But Tina’s situation is, in fact, extremely serious. 200 miles from her mom, in a motel room heavy with what’s just taken place, the teenager stares at the ceiling, unable to move. The man from the mall sleeps beside her, his threats echoing in her head: “I’ve killed before, and I won’t hesitate to kill you if you don’t obey me.”
When the sun finally comes up, Wilder then leads her back into his car, blindfolding her. Even without seeing anything, she knows his gun and knife are within arm’s reach. After terrifying hours of silence, and uncertainty on the road, Tina feels the car slow down and park. He’s chosen a new motel to spend the night in.
The day Tina disappeared, she had very long hair, but that night, at the motel, Wilder stands beside her with a pair of scissors. Without any warning, he cuts a first lock of hair off to her chin. Tina realizes something. With dread, but also, an uncomfortable relief, she realizes that he’s changing her appearance, because he doesn’t want her to be recognized. Most likely, this man wants to keep her alive.
A strange routine starts for Tina. The pair drive all day long, until there’s no more sunlight, only stopping occasionally for gas and food. At small drive-in restaurants, Tina looks for any opportunity - a bathroom window, a scrap of paper to leave a note… but Wilder is always watching. Her hope for escape slowly disappears to nothing. She’s now been missing for 6 terrifying days.
FORCED TO DO THE UNTHINKABLE
However, on day 7, April 10th, the pair arrive in Gary, Indiana: thousands of miles away from Tina’s home in California. Wilder turns to her, and forces her to do the unthinkable: if she doesn’t help him find a new victim, she won’t live to see another day.
Tina fearfully walks through the local mall, keeping Wilder in the corner of her eye. She can’t help but think about what she could possibly do to help the next girl. Tina notices Wilder is fixated on one person, seemingly around the same age as herself. He then looks at Tina, nodding to her as an order: Tina complies, and goes up to introduce herself. The girl reciprocates: her name is Dawn. Tina pretends to talk about a local beauty competition with Wilder as a photographer. Dawn seems excited, and follows them outside.
Suddenly, Wilder violently pushes Dawn into his car and they quickly speed away. As they drive, Wilder completely drops his charismatic sweet talker persona, and immediately threatens Dawn, warning her, just like Tina, that he’s killed before, and if she doesn’t behave he’ll kill her, too.
As night falls, Wilder stops the car at a motel in Ohio. When the group enters the room, he immediately breaks the bathroom lock to prevent the girls from escaping. He then tells Tina to go take a bath, leaving Dawn, alone in the bedroom with him. From under the bathroom door, Tina can see lights flickering erratically: she immediately knows what the man is doing to Dawn – the same torment he’s inflicted on her, over the last 7 days.
The next morning, the 3 get back in the car and drive eastward. At some point, Wilder gets out, and Tina finds herself alone with Dawn. Tina lowers her head. If only she could help Dawn.
MEDIA PRESSURE AND A NATIONWIDE MANHUNT
Back at the station, law enforcement are scrambling to piece together the mounting evidence before time runs out. Tracking Christopher Wilder has felt like ghost-hunting: he’s never in one place long enough to pin him down, crossing state lines faster than they can follow, leading to administrative slow-downs and miscommunications. At this point, it has been well over a month of failed efforts, but now, the FBI makes a bold move: they decide to broadcast a video of Wilder, himself. Now the public can learn his voice, his mannerisms, and understand the danger lurking behind the charm.
Wilder’s tape shocks the public: it’s a chilling portrait of a man hiding in plain sight. Turns out, the photographer also is a suspect in multiple violent crimes committed all the way in Australia. His glamorous race car driver experience and job as a fashion photographer have been the perfect cover to lure teens into his clutches. With Tina’s mom and the public on their side, the cops close in on Wilder.
DAWN’S MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL
Meanwhile, Wilder speeds down the road with Tina, and Dawn trapped in the back seat. After less than an hour, he stops the car near “The Finger Lakes”, a secluded area in upstate New York. Wilder turns to Dawn and orders her out of the car.
Wilder forces Dawn deep into the woods when suddenly, the man jumps on her, putting his hands around her throat. Dawn’s vision begins to blur, but she fights with everything she has. The two fall to the ground. Dawn can’t give up but then, she sees Wilder's hand. A flash of metal. He has a knife. On the ground, and bleeding out, Dawn can only watch as he quietly gets up, and walks away. Barely holding on to life, Dawn knows he could come back at any moment to finish the job. She needs to move if she wants to live. Once he’s out of sight, she pulls herself upright, and attempts to run for her life.
Now at the hospital, the staff treat her injuries. Somehow, Wilder miraculously missed her heart. Police gather as much information from Dawn as they can about her kidnapper. Despite her severe injuries and blood loss, she tells them her captor’s name, where she had been taken from, and the other kidnapped girl’s name. The police are getting closer.
TINA UNDER SUSPICION AS WILDER ESCALATES
Back in the car, when Wilder returns without Dawn, Tina can only assume Dawn has been killed. However, hours later, the pair hear on the car’s radio that a teenager had been found alive, in that same forest – now fighting for her life in the hospital. She fearfully turns her head towards him. What will he do with her?
Tina has no idea that public opinion has turned completely against her. In the first days of her kidnapping, she was seen for what she was: a victim. But now, after Dawn’s survival and retelling, the media has twisted the narrative, and labeled her an accomplice.
However, that testimony had also been a game changer for the FBI as they now know which direction Wilder is heading, and what car he’s driving. Finally, they’re one step ahead of him. Wilder is panicking, speeding into the parking lot of the Eastview Mall, still in New York. Usually, this is his favourite hunting ground, but now he's in a rush. From a distance, he spots 33 year old mother Beth Dodge, in her car: a golden Pontiac Firebird. At gunpoint, Wilder forces Beth into his car, while forcing Tina to follow them in the Firebird. After a short ride, they stop in a secluded area.
At this point, Tina has been captive for 9 days. Sadly, it hasn’t been the first time she’s dealt with violent men. Her childhood was difficult, as her mom struggled with addiction, before the young girl went to live with her grandmother.
Tina learned about survival a long time ago. However, she could never have predicted Wilder’s next move: after enduring his violence, torture, and kidnappings, he now announces to her that he’ll drop her off at the Boston airport. Tina can’t believe it. After witnessing so many things, why would he simply let her go?
In spite of road blocks on every major highway, Wilder tactfully avoids them and the pair arrive at the airport where he buys a one way ticket to LA.
Shockingly, no one recognizes them. Tina keeps her head down. Wilder is clearly panicked, and reckless. The killer might change his mind – Tina could be one wrong move away from staying his captive forever, or his next murder victim. Fear is in the air. But then, just like that, he turns away, and simply walks, leaving her to get on the flight alone.
It’s now April 13th. Soon after landing in LA, Tina, in shock, rushes to the police station – finally free. It’s now up to her to expose Wilder, to force him to face justice for what he’s done. Wilder’s spree of violence needs to stop. He can’t hurt any more victims.
WILDER’S FINAL MOMENTS
With the Firebird on everyone’s radar, and Tina cooperating in custody, cops are on high alert all over the country. That’s when, in the quiet town of Colebrook, New Hampshire, a report comes through about a flashy car, spotted by 2 state troopers. The car is confirmed to be the golden Pontiac Firebird – Beth Dodge’s car.
The 2 state patrol officers approach with extreme caution. If they’re right, the driver is a serial killer, armed and dangerous.
As the officers close in, they see the man inside reach for something. Gunfire erupts. One trooper is hit. Then, amidst the chaos, Wilder makes his final move: choosing to escape justice [pause] on his own terms. When the smoke clears, he’s found dead behind the wheel.
It had been 47 days since the first reported disappearance. But now, his time on the run has finally ended. Throughout his spree, 12 young women were abducted. 8 were murdered. Countless families were shattered
SURVIVOR'S STRUGGLE AND JUSTICE FOR TINA
While Linda and Dawn are praised, Tina’s actions are still questioned. The community and the media find it hard to believe that she is a victim when her ordeal was so different from all of the other women.
While Linda and Dawn are celebrated, Tina’s story is met with doubt. The public doesn’t rally behind her, like the others. Instead, they question her, choosing suspicion over compassion, despite surviving the same serial killer. That’s when the Torrance Police Captain, Jim Popp steps up and gathers the press to set the record straight.
LONG-TERM HEALING AND THE END OF HIS REIGN
With Jim Popp rightfully clearing her name, Tina can move forward, even if it will take time to heal from the public’s initial judgement. She still has 2 regrets: getting into Wilder’s car that day – and helping lure Dawn. Yet she has still found the strength to go on. Today, she has found love, and with it, the freedom to be herself.
Meanwhile Linda, knows how lucky she was. She was the first to break free from Wilder’s terrifying grip — and because of her courage, the police finally grasped how dangerous he truly was. Her twelve-hour ordeal changed her life forever, but it did not define her. She still carries with her the memory of those whose lives were stolen by the man she escaped.
Now a mother, Dawn knows that time truly does help you heal. Her strength and determination saw her through a horrific ordeal — and continue to shape the woman she’s become.
All of the women’s survival started the chain reaction that finally brought an end to the Beauty Queen Killer’s reign of terror. In the end, it wasn’t luck that stopped him, it was the women who refused to let him win. They refused to be broken, and through that, justice prevailed.
Related Content:
A 17-year-old model is kidnapped by Australia’s most infamous killer couple but her daring escape is so unreal that police mistake her for the criminal : The Case of Kate Moir
Credits:
Co-directed, edited & written by Maxime Desrochers
Co-directed, written & researched by Manon Lafosse
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader
For more stories like this, subscribe to our YouTube here
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Sources:
Documentaries:
“A Model Killer” - The FBI Files: New Dominion Pictures, 1999 (Production in association with Discovery Channel)
“Spring break nightmare” - Disappeared: Discovery Communication LLC, 2011 (Production: Peacock Production for Investigation Discovery / Distribution: Sky Crime)
Mini-series“9 Days of Terror“ - The Beauty Queen Killer: ABC News Inc., 2024(Production Company AMPLE/Distribution Disney+/101 Studios/ ®Hulu)
News segmentThe Snapshot Killer: Inside the Wanda Beach murders7NEWS Spotlight, originally aired 10 June 2018
Books:
Connelly, Michael. Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers. Little, Brown and Company, 2006
Byrne, Andrew. The Pretty Girl Killer: The Complete True Story of One of the World’s Most Horrifying Serial Killers Who Terrorised Both Australia and America. Penguin Random House Australia, 2019
"Driven to Kill." Most Wanted, edited by the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, 2005
29-year-old Sherri Rasmussen is celebrating Christmas with her family. She is married to John Ruetten, a devoted husband who adores her. But on the night of February 24th, 1986, things would take a turn for the worse.
After John claims he found his wife, Sherri, dead on the floor, investigators turn to a polygraph to see if he’s telling the truth. After the interrogation, the results show John failed the polygraph, and investigators are convinced he did it. But with no concrete evidence, he’s set free.
For over 20 years, it remains a cold case — no arrests, no answers. Nobody knows what really happened to Sherri. But after all this time, Sherri’s father becomes obsessed with discovering what happened to his daughter. As the last person to have spoken with her, he knows that their final conversation may hold the key to solving the case. According to Sherri's father, John's ex-girlfriend Stephanie, an LAPD detective, matches the description Sherri had given. Investigators are stunned because Stephanie is one of their own, but they decide to question her anyway.
DISCOVERY OF THE CRIME SCENE AND EARLY DOUBTS
Los Angeles. February 24, 1986. 6:00 p.m. — John Ruetten returns home from work. As he approaches the townhouse, the garage door is open, and his wife’s car is missing. Odd, but Sherri runs the nursing wing at Glendale Adventist, and emergencies are common. John climbs the steps. The front door is ajar. He pushes it open. Inside, on the living room floor, lies Sherri, in a pool of blood. He picks up the phone and calls 911.
The scene suggests a break-in, with stereo equipment scattered all across the floor. Without doing a complete examination, the officer notices that someone has tied up Sherri, bitten her deep on the left forearm, brutally struck her on the head with various objects, and shot her three times in the abdomen. She has also left deep claw marks on the front door in some sort of desperate struggle. As he outlines all of the gruesome details to his colleagues, the officer can’t help but hear quiet sobbing coming from the adjacent dining room.
When asked about his security system, John admits he forgot to set the alarm that morning and isn’t sure if he locked the door. He explains that Sherri was still in bed and that the neighborhood felt safe. As suspicious elements begin to add up, the police can’t help but question: why would the burglar pick a townhouse right in the middle of the street instead of a corner unit?
SHERRI’S BRILLIANT LIFE AND PROMISING FUTURE
Sherri Rasmussen. A young woman with a bright future ahead of her. Gifted in school, she entered college at sixteen, skipping two grades. Her father had hoped she would pursue a career in medicine, but Sherri became a nurse instead, convinced it would allow her to balance her career with the family life she longed for. By the age of twenty-three, she had already obtained her master’s degree and was teaching at UCLA.
Everywhere, people complimented Sherri for her intelligence, calming presence, and natural leadership. By her late twenties, she had already become the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist, and in the spring of 1984, she met her future husband, John Ruetten.
THE RASMUSSENS’ GROWING SUSPICIONS
However, Sherri’s dad, Nels, pushes aside these feelings when he receives the phone call announcing Sherri’s passing, as it wasn’t from John himself but from his father.
When the Rasmussens arrive at the police station, they finally reunite with John. But to their surprise, he still refuses to talk, insisting that the police won’t allow him. For them, the exchange is unsettling, and John’s secretive attitude is difficult to read. The Rasmussens wonder if this is the reaction of a man in shock, or if he’s holding back to protect himself—or someone else.
STALKING, HARASSMENT, AND IGNORED RED FLAGS
As John is escorted into an interrogation room by a detective, Nels ponders their exchange — or lack thereof. The 51-year-old is sure his son-in-law is lying, because Sherri’s family, friends, and colleagues all know that in the year leading up to her murder, something disturbing was happening: a strange figure in disguise was constantly stalking her. On top of that, John’s ex-girlfriend also began harassing Sherri after their wedding. A colleague of hers witnessed one of the encounters.
As detectives question John, another officer speaks with the Rasmussens. Nels struggles to process what he’s hearing. According to the authorities, thieves killed his daughter in a failed robbery where they stole nothing but her purse and car. Nels immediately starts talking about the stalking and harassment his daughter suffered during the months leading up to her murder. Still, the officer in front of him retorts that, without a name, there’s nothing they can do.
Nonetheless, Nels follows up with one alarming incident where John’s ex-girlfriend broke into Sherri’s townhouse and started fighting with his daughter in her own living room before running away.
YEARS OF STONEWALLING AND A COLD CASE
This is the last time John ever speaks publicly about Sherri. In the audience, Nels Rasmussen sits filled with grief and anger. A month has passed, and the police haven’t moved an inch. Nels doesn’t know what John has told them, but they never consider his son-in-law a suspect. On the contrary, the police stick to their burglary theory, even stating that the Rasmussens had been watching too much TV when Nels and his family tried to convince them to investigate Sherri’s stalker and John’s ex-girlfriend.
The next month, less than a mile from Sherri’s townhouse, an actual burglary takes place. A woman coming home is surprised by two men inside. One runs for the door, while the other points a revolver at her.
Same neighborhood, same time, same weapon. However, this time, no one is hurt. Either the police are actually onto something, or fate is playing a cruel trick on the Rasmussens. Convinced the burglary and Sherri’s murder are linked, detectives plaster the city with the suspects' faces. Weeks go by with no leads, then months. The police eventually find the two items the thieves stole from Sherri’s property — her car and purse — both cleaned free of prints. And then, silence. For almost 15 years, the Rasmussens remain entirely in the dark.
By 1991, Nels Rasmussen is back home in Arizona, still carrying the weight of Sherri’s unsolved murder. Determined to get justice for his daughter, he follows every development in forensic science, watching closely as DNA testing begins to revolutionize the field. Around the same time, the case’s lead detective retires, handing over his stalled investigation to someone else. For Nels, it feels like an opening. He wastes no time and contacts the new man in charge, with a plan he believes could break the case.
Before Nels can convince anyone at the LAPD to give his idea a shot, something very strange happens: various pieces of evidence related to the case mysteriously disappear. Not only that, but someone trims the murder book — containing the entire investigation — of half its content on the premise that it has grown too large for the cold case office storage room. The mishandling of the case is becoming increasingly difficult for the Rasmussens to bear, who continue to try to get in touch with the police or speak with someone, anyone, who’ll take them seriously.
For the next 10 years, every time the case changes hands, the family flies from Tucson to Los Angeles to meet the new detectives. And each time, Nels and his two remaining daughters return home heartbroken by their lack of progress.
DNA BREAKTHROUGH AND EVIDENCE OF A COVER-UP
It’s now November 2001. The LAPD can no longer ignore advances in forensic science and establishes a Cold Case Unit dedicated to DNA profiling. Sherri’s file, now fifteen years old, lands on the desk of an overextended detective with no time to treat it properly. Instead of letting it gather dust, the case is handed off to a criminalist, Jennifer Francis. She begins combing through the boxes of evidence herself and eventually stumbles across a detailed entry about a bite mark Sherri received during the struggle with her killer.
Strangely, the file claims investigators sampled only one blood type, but bite marks should always yield two profiles, one from the victim and one from the perpetrator. The entry seems to suggest Sherri might have bitten herself — a theory Francis finds baffling. She knows the original detective failed to recover prints and other key evidence from the scene, but surely someone from his forensic team had swabbed the wound. With her boss’s help, she digs through boxes upon boxes of paperwork until she uncovers an old property log from 1986, listing the crucial swab she has been searching for.
But Francis refuses to give up. She calls every coroner in the city until she finally gets a lead. After spending six hours combing through the morgue’s freezers, an LA County coroner informs her he has found a torn envelope with its fading label damaged. Against all odds, the glass tube containing the swab is still inside, and in one piece. She immediately runs a battery of tests, and the result points towards an unknown female, directly contradicting the theory of a male duo. Further down the file, Francis also learns about Nels Rasmussen and his numerous attempts to inform the police about Sherri’s stalker and John’s ex-girlfriend. Francis’s own theory begins to take shape: what if the two were one and the same, and she was the one who bit and killed Sherri? But when Francis brings this to the detective, he dismisses it outright. He insists that everything else still points to a burglary — and adds one detail Francis has yet to learn: John’s ex-girlfriend is not just any woman. She is an LAPD detective.
RETALIATION AGAINST FRANCIS AND A SECRET ALLIANCE
Unbeknownst to Nels, his only ally at this time is within the LAPD. Jennifer Francis relentlessly pushes the case — first to the Cold Case Unit, then to the Scientific Division, later to Robbery-Homicide, and even to Internal Affairs. Yet everywhere she goes, supervisors turn their attention not to the evidence, but to her. They question her mental state, claiming she is too emotional, paranoid, and obsessed with Sherri’s case. By May 2010, Francis is ordered into mandatory counseling with an LAPD-sanctioned therapist — a move that, inside the department, brands her as unstable and potentially unfit for duty. Even worse, the sessions aren’t at all concerned with her well-being, but rather with what she knows about the case and who she has talked to. For Francis, this is no longer a matter of paranoia or conspiracy. This feels like retaliation.
A Deputy DA calls her crazy, colleagues treat her as a liability, and systematically push her off major cases. Around the lab, people belittle her, telling her to get a hobby or joking that she watches too much TV. What she doesn’t realize is that she is retracing the same path as Nels Rasmussen, who, decades earlier, had also been ridiculed by the authorities, despite being the only one able to see through the conspiracy at the time.
Then, in November 2009, everything changes. Francis receives a call from Robbery-Homicide. A detective named James Nuttall is asking about her findings. She has been waiting more than five years for this moment — the Rasmussens, twenty-three. But fear holds her back. She feels like she can’t trust anyone anymore. She tells the detective that she doesn’t believe it was a burglary and that the evidence may have been tampered with, but doesn’t share her theory with him.
Yet Nuttall has her results right in front of him and quickly puts two and two together. He knows the case has been closed four times, that the only DNA not matching Sherri's belongs to another female, and has already read the dozens of letters Nels sent over the years, urging police to investigate John’s ex-girlfriend. From this point on, the detective decides to form a secret circle within the homicide department. With Jennifer, who comes to trust him over the first few months of the investigation, himself, and three other detectives, Nuttall sets out to prove once and for all that someone from within their ranks violently attacked and killed the innocent Sherri Rasmussen inside her own home back in 1986.
REOPENING THE CASE AND JOHN’S CRUCIAL REVELATIONS
Nuttall and Francis don’t waste a minute. Digging deep within the case files, they find John's original 1986 interview with the first detective in charge of the case, who, to say the least, was quick to jump to conclusions and not very insistent toward the man who should have been his first suspect.
To Nuttall, something's off with the interview. Why did the detective jump to conclusions so fast? Why did John Ruetten lie? According to Nels and Sherri’s colleague, his ex-girlfriend was quite problematic, and Sherri wasn’t afraid to bring it up in conversation. But what really throws Nuttall off is that there’s nothing else to listen to. In 23 years of investigations, three other detectives reopened the case, but none of them ever considered conducting a second interview with John to ask about Nels's claims. Nuttall doesn’t know what might have caused the investigation to go astray, but he knows he won’t be the fourth to pass on the idea. He contacts John, who has relocated to the Bay Area, remarried, and had children since then, and sets up an interview. From the get-go, he adopts a very different tone, wasting no time bringing up his ex, the story at the hospital, the home invasion, the stalking; he doesn’t miss a beat and even recalls information that had never been recorded in their files until recently.
TRAPPING A KILLER 23 YEARS LATER
Not only does John give their suspect a name, he also explains that while he and Sherri were engaged, he had been cheating on her with Lazarus, even though he knew she was obsessed with him. In college, when the two were dating, she used to steal his underwear and sneak into his dorm to take pictures of him as he slept.
By that point, Lazarus is no longer a police officer but a full-fledged detective. She’s armed, and her office is just down the hall from Nuttall. To make sure nobody intervenes with their investigation as they had with Francis, the detective decides to send men to follow her around and recover anything she throws into the trash. From this endeavor, they recover a used soda cup and send it to Francis, who then confirms that Lazarus' DNA matches the one found on the bite mark. Nuttall then prompts his team to lure her into the LAPD suspect treatment unit, the only place in the building where no guns are allowed, and to falsely claim that they need her help for an interrogation with a difficult suspect. But little does she know, she is the suspect.
BITTERSWEET JUSTICE AND SHERRI’S LEGACY
For the first time since Sherri’s murder, everyone is on the same side, facing the same culprit. Jennifer Francis presents her DNA test results and recounts the retaliation she endured within the LAPD. Nels Rasmussen steps forward with the warnings he tried to give from the start, and how he was ignored for decades. And John Ruetten, whose testimony had been tempered with and whose contact with Sherri’s family was restricted by police, finally speaks openly. Together, along with dozens of other witnesses, they testify.
Nuttall's investigation takes four months. The trial lasts three weeks. The jury comes to a conclusion in less than a day. After 26 years of struggle, Sherri and her family finally receive justice.
In 2023, Lazarus admits — 37 years too late — that she killed Sherri. In exchange for her confession, she’s offered a shot at parole. By then, Nels has already passed away, but before his death, he recorded a statement to be used at hearings. The board saw it in 2023, and it will be shown again whenever Lazarus attempts to get released in the future.
Today, Sherri’s legacy continues — not only through her family’s long-lasting fight for justice, but also in the lives of the Rasmussens’ next generation.
Related Content:
A woman is found with a slashed neck but as her ex insists she did it to herself, detectives race to uncover the truth before he “finishes the job.": The Case of Tiffany Mead
Credits:
Written, directed & edited by Alexandre Gendron
Researched by Amanda Hein
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader
For more stories like this, subscribe to our YouTube here
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Sources:
Getty Images 48 Hours: One of Their Own, CBS, 2010
20/20: The Killer Down the Hall, ABC, 2024
Dateline: Detective Story, NBC, 2019
The Real Murders of Los Angeles: Once Bitten, 44 Blue Productions, 2023
Pay attention to these children. They are just two, of hundreds of kids who were reported missing by their parents, between 1993 and 2001. This footage shows where the kids were found, A 400 acre compound, isolated in a rural part of the state of Georgia. Where normally, no outsider is allowed entrance. The footage shows massive pyramids, a towering Sphynx, and strange monuments. Inside, everyone appears happy, waving at the camera. But behind the smiles, these people are hiding a disturbing secret. When the local sheriffs investigated the missing children, they were met at the gate by armed men.
While what really went on inside the compound remained a secret for decades, doctors in Georgia started noticing an alarming pattern: multiple hospitals admitting dozens of children from the compound, as young as 11 years old, who were pregnant. The FBI quickly got involved, planning a raid on the compound, to save the hundreds of children living behind the gates. But the FBI was afraid of having a repeat of the attack in Waco, Texas, a cult raid which saw dozens of young children murdered and sparked mass hysteria. The FBI would have had no idea what they were up against, until one 7 year-old girl escaped the compound, before it was too late. She was the only one, who could expose the truth.
DISCOVERING THE NUWAUBIAN COMMUNITY
It’s 1977, in New York city. 2-year-old Niki is living with her mother in a small apartment in Queens, New York, a neighborhood riddled with crime and violence. Every day, as Niki’s mom leaves for work, she experiences the brutality of the streets of New York. She thinks about little Niki–this is not the world she wants her to grow up in. But with little money, the single mom doesn’t have many options. But one day everything changes when, Niki’s mother is approached by a man in long white garments. He hands her a book and points at the address printed on the cover. That night, she becomes filled with curiosity and reads the book cover to cover–finally feeling that her prayers and hopes for a better life are being answered. Immediately, she decides that she will visit the man the next day.
As she walks down the street, she proceeds with her usual caution, but, as she approaches 717 Bushwick Avenue, she feels the air around her begin to change. Slowly, she hears the faint sound of a choir singing. As she walks in, she sees children laughing, playing, and running around freely in beautiful garments. She comes face to face with an entire community: a community who preaches about their struggle, while lifting each other up. After this first meeting, a new routine starts for the young mother: she begins attending the gatherings regularly, finally finding a place that feels like home. Slowly, the streets of New York feel safer with the help of this new community, and as the years go by, Niki’s mom starts to change: she finally sees a future for her and her kids: one that is hopeful, and full of possibilities.
NIKI GROWS UP INSIDE THE NATION
Niki, now 7 years old, starts to become more and more aware of her mother’s faith, and for the first time since her mom’s discovery, she tags along to a sermon with her. Niki’s mom watches her daughter as she enters– seeing her child carefree, and surrounded by such peace and joy brings tears to her eyes.Behind this safe community, is one man who made it all happen–its charismatic preacher: Dr. Dwight Malachi York.
THE ORIGINS THE NUWAUBIAN NATION
The community, known as the Nuwaubian Nation, had its roots in New York City back in the 1960s. At the time, the city was an even more dangerous place to live — especially for African Americans, who faced daily discrimination and violence in the years following segregation. Racial tensions were high, and the streets of New York were no less forgiving: muggings, drug deals, and violent crime were a part of everyday life. So for many, the new community offered more than just spiritual and cultural liberation, it was a safe haven for Black residents in New York and across other cities along the East Coast.
York, was an accomplished speaker who spent decades building this community. He often spoke about fighting for Black Americans, and had ties to the Black Panther movement. On the side, he was also a musician, producing his own smooth jazz, funk, and disco records. He was an artist, and activist, and most importantly, the leader of the Nuwabian Nation. His message of self-empowerment and strength only grew stronger into the 80s. And that’s when, in 1986, Niki’s family takes a big leap of faith. At just 11 years old, Niki officially moves into the compound in Bushwick, New York. Along with her 2 younger siblings, she’s promised a roof over her head, protection, and the assurance of a better, brighter future. But with their new lives, come new rules, new customs – and ultimately, a completely new way of life.
LIFE UNDER DWIGHT MALACHI YORK’S CONTROL
The spiritual leader is particularly fond of Niki and her siblings, and makes sure they’re well fed, properly dressed, and kept entertained. He pays them close attention, greeting them warmly, checking in on their well-being, and ensuring they’re included in community activities. For Niki, the attention feels comforting, special. In a way, she’s found a new father figure to look up to: someone both protective and powerful. Dr. Malachi Dwight York is at the center of the Nuwaubian Nation. He is revered as their leader and their savior–he is the provider of safety and hope. By this point, there’s over 1000 members, and their community's in Bushwick, is becoming increasingly crowded. It comes to a point where it’s clear to York, that they’ve outgrown the city streets, and a new chapter needs to begin.
FROM NEW YORK TO GEORGIA
And it will be over 900 miles away from New York, in the rural farmlands of Putnam County, Georgia, that Dwight York decides to build the new home for his congregation. Before York starts building in Georgia, he decides to fully overhaul the Nuwaubian Nation doctrine–drawing from different cultures, religions, and mythologies from around the world to create a new identity for his community. He makes drastic changes to his appearance in his quest–one moment, taking on a western persona, donning cowboy hats and boots, next he claims to be an extraterrestrial being called “Yaanuwn”, and even going as far as calling himself, “Chief Black Thunderbird Eagle,” while wearing a feather headdress. He moves from one identity to the next until he lands on the perfect one that will define the new Nuwaubian Nation.
York gathers his followers for a sermon. There, he proclaims the true origin of Nuwaubians: that they are, in fact, descendants of Ancient Egyptians from a different planet. His loyal followers welcome their new-found identity and quickly get to work. They begin building. A massive sphinx head is erected, towering over the previously abandoned farmland. Artists are hired, murals are painted, and before long, dozens of elaborate structures and several large pyramids begin to take shape. With each new structure, the place transforms into something so bizarre and theatrical–drawing more and more attention from their neighbours and passersby. Dwight and his followers name it “Tama-Re,” Egypt of the West.Though the neighbours are confused by the strange new community, the compound isn’t disruptive: the grounds stay tidy, there’s no noise, and no trouble. it’s strange to look at, yes, but it appears harmless. But the truth is not what it seems, and what’s really going on behind these walls, is far more disturbing.
NIKI’S REVELATION
Two years after joining the Nuwaubian community, Niki finally feels settled in her new home.. But then one day, one of York’s wives finds Niki alone on the grounds. She calls her over urgently, leading her to a private room. And that's what the woman tells the young teenager, something she never expected. In a state of shock, Niki doesn’t know what to do, or how to feel. She just listens. Maybe this is normal, and every other young girl in the community gets the same talk from Dwight York as part of his teachings. After all, he is the respected leader, the “prophet”.
That’s when York comes in, and locks the door behind him – leaving him and Nikki alone in the room. The young teenager looks at the man she calls her father–something feels wrong. Suddenly a strong sense of fear washes over her. In that moment, the trust she once had in him, shatters. The world she thought she understood, the people she thought she could rely on, all feels different now. Everything has changed, and there’s no going back.
TRAPPED IN FEAR AND CONTROL
Niki stays quiet, trapped by the rules, and by the eyes constantly surveying her, making sure she stays loyal, and doesn’t disrespect the leader by going against his teachings. With no one to turn to, not even her own mother, it feels like there’s nowhere else to go. Niki lives in fear, harbouring a secret that she tells no one. Everyone in the community acts normally, praising Dwight York, worshiping their leader, not knowing the darkness this man possesses. But as the teenager grows up, something inside her tells her that she’s not alone. York’s power has only grown, unchallenged and out of sight. A part of Niki knows she needs to escape to save herself and the other children. But the fear of leaving behind everything she knows, everything she has ever had, is strong.
DECIDING TO ESCAPE AND DEFY THE CULT
Having been herself a victim of Dwight York is one thing, but seeing the same thing happening to younger children, is another. In spite of years of manipulation and grooming, Nikki can still see how wrong everything is. Over time, she realizes that she needs to escape, not just for her sake, but for all the other girls who need to be protected. However, her mother doesn’t see it that way: for her, the community is what saved her and her kids from the dangers of the world, so when Niki gathers up the courage to confess her plan, her mom’s reaction takes her by surprise. The side she’s chosen, is not her daughter’s – and that’s when a campaign of intimidation and pressure begins, led mainly by York, but also, by her own mother.
Despite the heartache, Niki tries to stay strong. With no family on the outside to help her, she tracks down a former cult member, now living in Atlanta, who offers her a place to stay while she reaches safety. Meanwhile, York is furious to see “one of his daughters” trying to leave him. The betrayal is huge and his pride is on the line. Niki, by openly rejecting him, has cornered him. That’s when York takes an unprecedented decision, in an attempt to save face: Niki is not leaving him – he, is the one kicking her out and even arranges a car to drive her to Atlanta. But, her mind is set, all she can think of is who she left behind: York is a monster and the world needs to know. Her mission is clear: expose the disturbing truth about York’s cult, and save the children still trapped at the compound before it’s too late, but unbeknownst to her, the FBI, is already on it....
THE FBI INVESTIGATION : PLANNING THE RAID
For years, the FBI has been quietly building a case against the cult leader- ever since they started receiving the most unusual phone calls from across the country: calls from parents, who all had… missing children.Then, doctors from the surrounding area started sounding the alarm: they were uncovering a horrific pattern: girls, as young as 11 years old, were showing up at hospitals, pregnant. As they traced their locations, they all came from one place- the Nuwaubian compound. While agents continue their investigation into York, there’s growing concern about the potential violence and innocent lives that could be lost if the FBI confronts the community leader directly at the compound. York becomes increasingly more aggressive and reckless, appointing armed guards to guard the gate, whileThe locals of Putnam County become even more wary of their strange neighbours as things escalate. It is clear that something sinister is happening at the compound, but with no witnesses willing to talk about it, authorities are left in a tough spot. Both the FBI and Law enforcement in Georgia don’t want to have a repeat of Waco…
In 1993, in Waco, Texas, just 1 year before the investigation on the Nuwaubian Nation leader, Dwight York, began, a 51-day standoff between the FBI, and a religious group called the Branch Davidians ended in a deadly fire, resulting in 76 deaths, including 25 children. What began as an attempt to serve a search and arrest warrant, escalated into one of the most tragic events in U.S. history. The aftermath sparked outrage in the media, with witnesses and survivors criticizing the government's handling of the situation. Now faced with the same fear, authorities are deeply concerned about how to handle their investigation on York. For nearly a decade, they did everything to build a strong case against the leader, but what they really needed was a real victim statement. Someone on the inside, who knew what was going on – to expose the truth which is when Niki, the girl who had just escaped, decides to come forward.
Finally, with a survivor on the record, authorities have enough evidence to make their move. On the morning of May 8th, 2002, Sheriff Sills and an army of over 200 deputies, US Marshals, and FBI tactical agents, get ready to bring in Dwight York. The difficult part, is that they need to prevent York from rallying his followers to violently resist the police upon entry. If this goes wrong, it could quickly turn deadly, and they know a lot of children are on the premises. That’s when Sheriff Sills comes up with a plan. The first step will be closely tracking Dwight York, patiently waiting for him to leave the compound before the raid. Hours pass. The authorities wait in silence – in fear of what comes next. Finally, the gates of Tama-Re open. They spot a sleek black car leaving. The FBI agents start following it, doing their best not to get spotted. FBI agents hold their breath, waiting for the car door to open as they wait hidden in the parking lot– hoping Dwight York has been the man in the vehicle this whole time. One miscalculation could risk the entire operation – if it’s not York, they can't risk the leader discovering that they’re coming for him while still protected at the compound. Then, the car door swings open. A man exits from the back seat. The surveillance team confirms it. It’s Dwight York walking out of the car. Now is the time to strike: The agents make their move just as planned, with meticulous coordination, they quickly move out of unmarked vehicles, approaching York, who surrounded by a swarm of armed agents, finally has nowhere left to run, and the team makes an arrest.
Sheriff Sills’ turn to complete his mission: he swiftly leads a convoy with dozens of local and federal officers into the gates of Tama-Re, but not without caution. Hundreds of innocent children and their families live on the grounds. Despite anticipation of resistance and retaliation, they enter without force, through the main gates.
THE FALL OF DWIGHT YORK
The operation is successful, and without any violence. After years of fear, secrecy, and abuse, Tama-Re finally comes to a quiet end. Now, with York in custody and the Nuwaubian compound disbanded, Putnam County law enforcement continues building their legal case against York, with the FBI. For nearly two years, they gather more witnesses, expert testimonies, and countless pieces of evidence.
Early January 2004, Dwight York’s trial begins. He faces charges for several counts of child abuse, rape, raketeering, conspiracy, and tax fraud. Finally York is facing accountability for his horrific crimes, the survivors sit together, hand in hand. Among the survivors, is Niki. She looks at York– he is no longer the self-proclaimed god and prophet she once knew. To her, he just looks like a regular old man, his hair turning grey, and his body appearing frail in an orange prison jumpsuit. Niki stands with her head high–nervous, but with strength, she walks towards the witness stand to testify against the man who once had so much power over her. After three weeks of testimony, on January 23, 2004, Dwight York is found guilty on 11 of the 13 counts, and sentenced to the maximum penalty. Among the litany of state and federal charges against him, York pleads guilty to 74 counts.
TURNING TRAUMA INTO IMPACT
After York’s conviction, Niki moves to South Florida with a new lease on life. There, she pursues her GED and finds her passion as an artist with a mission to serve the community and empower others. In 2015, Niki starts an organization called “What’s Your Elephant,” which uses the arts as an avenue to challenge social norms. For the last 20 years, Niki has positively influenced her community. Dwight York called himself a leader, but Niki, showed what being a leader really means. She became a mentor, a teacher, and a most importantly a genuine safe place for others. In fact, her strength to stand up for herself, and for others, hasn’t gone unnoticed.
In 2004, after testifying against York, she received the Louis E. Peters Memorial Service Award: the highest civilian humanitarian award in the US. Through her determination to turn her pain into purpose, Niki continues to work with underserved communities, supporting them to speak their truth, and share their stories. Today, she stands as a true leader – proof that even in the darkest chapters, healing and purpose can emerge.
Niki founded her organization “What’s Your Elephant”, which aims to empower individuals from all walks of life to use the arts to tell their stories: https://whatsyourelephant.org/
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A 12-year-old girl escapes the Jonestown cult and flees into the Guyanese jungle as a massacre unfolds—her survival becomes the key to exposing the cult’s darkest secrets: The Case of Tracy Parks
Credits:
Written, directed & edited by Matthew Rice
Researched by Bianca Yzabelle Tan
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader
For more stories like this, subscribe to our YouTube here
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Sources:
The Nuwaubian Nation, How I Escaped My Cult: Freeform, 2025
United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, People Magazine Investigates: Cults: MMXVIII Discovery Communications LLC, 2018
Nuwaubian Nation, FOX5 Eyewitness News, 1998
Waco: The Inside Story, Frontline PBS, 2018 Mysteries Behind Closed Doors: The Dr. Malachi Z. York Case (The Untold Story), ImperialSevens, 2012
Open House visits to the Nuwaubian compound Tama-Re, Jay Humphrey, 2024
Getty Images
Instagram, Niki Lopez
The Waco Massacre: 30 Years On | DARK SIDE OF THE 90'S, VICE TV, 2023 Local Artist Shares Her “Elephant” to Help Empower Women, NBC 6 South Florida, 2019
This 3 year old boy is found walking alone in the street, with a soiled diaper. His parents are known to be good people, and would never let him out of their sight. Cops quickly discovered that his mom was brutally murdered. They think the husband did it, after they find a suspicious note on her dresser. Michael Morton is sentenced to life in prison.
The problem is, the husband is innocent. And worse yet, the cops knew about it, and hid it for 25 years. But no one could have imagined that the truth would finally come from the only person who saw the real killer. The 3 year-old boy, who lost both his parents. He will come back, to take down his mother’s killer, and to save his own father.
HORROR INSIDE THE MASTER BEDROOM
North Austin, Texas. August 13th 1986. Early that morning, a man finds a 3 year old boy wandering alone, outside the Morton residence, at 9114 Hazelhurst Drive. When the man walks the boy back inside, he calls out for his mother Christine, but gets no answer. After searching through the house, the neighbour heads to the master bedroom and stumbles upon a horrific scene. When Sheriff Jim Boutwell from Williamson County is called to the location, he finds Christine’s body hidden under a blanket, covered with a blue suitcase and a wicker basket.
Upon removing the items, he sees Christine is no longer recognizable. She has been killed, with a large blunt object. After searching the rest of the house, he can see no sign of forced entry, no sign that anything has been stolen. It’s determined that Christine was not sexually assaulted, which has investigators puzzled.
Until they find a note left on the dresser. It’s written by Christine’s husband Michael.Later that day, Michael leaves work to go pick up his son at the daycare, but finds little Eric was never brought in. He calls home, to ask his wife what happened. To his surprise, it’s Sheriff Boutwell who answers the phone. He says nothing to Michael about what happened, and asks him to come home at once.
THE ARREST OF MICHAEL MORTON
September 25th, not long after Christine’s funeral, Michael is at home with his son, when the door bell rings. He takes Eric in his arms and goes to answer. When he opens the door, it’sSheriff Jim Boutwell, with several deputies. They’re here to arrest Michael.
One of the deputies grabs 3 year old Eric, and pulls him out of his father’s arms, while Sheriff Boutwell handcuffs Michael. All the while, Eric is screaming for his father, with his arms out stretched as he’s being taken away.
THE TRIAL BUILT ON A LIE
February 9th 1987, less than six months after the murder, Michael Morton’s trial begins. The prosecutor is district attorney Ken Anderson, who is known for being aggressive, sarcastic, and smart. For him, Christine’s murder trial is his biggest case yet. If he wins, it will propel his career. And he’s ready to do anything to put Michael in prison, even breaking the rules. He begins his attack on Michael by focusing on the note found at the scene. It spoke of an argument the couple had the night before... about sex.
The story Anderson sells to the jury, is that Michael wasn’t happy with Christine, and he wanted out of the marriage. And when she refused to have sex with him on his birthday, he killedChristine in a fit of rage. When Michael takes the stand, the jury hears his side of the story, how Christine was alive when he left for work, where he clocked in at around 6am. According to his testimony, Christine must have been killed after he’d left.
He tells the court he wasn’t angry when he left the note, that it was meant as a playful banter with his wife. But the jury no longer believes him, after prosecutor Anderson brings his last witness to the stand.
Doctor Roberto Bayardo testifies under oath, that after examining Christine’s stomach contents, he estimates the time of death to be at around 1am. 4 hours before Michael says he sawChristine alive, when he left for work. The defense is devastated. With scientific proof against him, Michael’s alibi falls apart. And the jury is now sure to see him as guilty.
But what no one knows, is that in reality, Doctor Bayardo was unable to determine the time of death accurately, but Ken Anderson still used him as an expert witness, to give his damning testimony.
A FAMILY DESTROYED BY LIES
February 17th, the trial comes to an end. During the closing arguments, prosecutor Ken Anderson puts the final nail in the coffin. He fabricates a claim that Michael sexually assaulted Christine after the fact, while having no proof her real killer did anything of the sort. But it no longer matters, no one will contradict him now.
As he describes the scene to the jury, Anderson has tears coming from his eyes. The performance is effective. It doesn’t take long for the jury to deliberate.
After the sentencing, Anderson tells the media a life sentence is too good for Michael Morton, and that he should’ve been given the death penalty. As he’s escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs, Michael continues to claim his innocence. But no one believes him.
Ken Anderson has just put an innocent man in jail, for life. All the while, the real killer is still out there. Free to kill again.
As for Michael, he languishes in his cell. Year after year, he files for appeals, but is rejected every time. His only solace comes from the visits of his son Eric, whom he’s allowed to see once every six months.
Because the visits are under court order, Eric needs his dad’s permission, to stop coming to see him in prison. Michael is heartbroken. All he wants, is to see his son one more time.
District attorney Ken Anderson has convinced Christine’s family that Michael is guilty. So Eric, who is being raised by Christine’s sister, has been brought up to believe his father killed his mom. Michael knows the only way he can ever get him back, is to find a way to prove his innocence in court. Or he may never see him again.
JOHN RALEY & THE INNOCENCE PROJECT
It’s 2004, Michael has been in jail for the last 17 years, when he finally gets in contact with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that works to overturn wrongful convictions, through DNA testing.
John Raley, a civil attorney who became known to the Project, because of a medical Malpractice case, agrees to take on what would be his first ever murder case. When he’s given the court documents from Michael’s trial, he immediately finds red flags. As he reads through the file, Raley is stunned, to find no real evidence of guilt.
He also finds key issues with the statements made by the medical examiner. According to the records, Roberto Bayardo didn’t get access to Christine’s body until a few days after her murder, which would make any assessment of the exact time of death impossible.
John Raley is determined to find out the truth, about Christine Morton’s murder. His first step, is to go meet Michael in person. When he arrives at the Mark W. Michael Unit in East Texas, he’s taken to the family room, where Michael is waiting for him.
A LEGAL BATTLE AGAINST POWERFUL OBSTRUCTION
John Raley doesn’t waste any time, and puts a team together. When they get their hands on the list of evidence still on file, they learn about a blue bandana with blood on it, which never made it into the actual trial. According to the 1986 investigation of the murder, one of the deputies saw a dirty bandana near a construction site, about one hundred yards from the house.
To prove Michael’s innocence, Raley is hoping the bandana will contain Christine’s DNA, as well as her killer’s. In order to do the analysis, his team needs to get their hands on the actual evidence. But when they show up at the Sheriff’s department, they are denied access.
John files a motion, which would force them to turn the evidence over. But by 2005, they still haven’t heard back from the district attorney’s office. So John decides to give him a call.
It just so happens, John Bradley’s mentor, is none other than Ken Anderson, the prosecutor inMichael’s case. Anderson, has since been appointed district judge, and has made some powerful friends in Williamson county, but now, he’s become one of its most influential figures himself. If the DNA testing proves Michael is innocent, it would look terrible for Anderson. But more importantly, there’s something in the prosecutor files that Anderson doesn’t want anyone to see. John Bradley understands this, and he rejects Raley’s request. Michael’s life hangs in the balance, but Ken Anderson didn’t just take away his freedom, he also took away his son.
March 7th 2008, over three years after he filed his motion, John Raley has his first hearing in the case. He tells the judge about the bandana with blood on it, that it was never subjected toDNA testing. He also says the state has been blocking their efforts since day one. He hopes the judge will force them to hand over the evidence. But he has no idea, that district attorney JohnBradley has already arranged for the judge to reject his request. And that his battle was lost before it began. In fact, John Bradley isn’t even at the hearing. Raley is furious.
Right away he gets in his car, and heads off to go see Bradley at his office, which is in Georgetown, nearly 200 miles away.When he arrives in Bradley’s office, Raley’s blood is still boiling. And he does something completely out of character.
THE APPEALS COURT AND HIDDEN EVIDENCE
A few days later, on a Saturday morning, John Raley gets a call he never expected. It’s Michael.And he has news.Michael has been in jail for 21 years. He has no idea where his son is. John Raley wouldn’t be surprised if, after all this time, he decides to take the deal. But admitting his guilt, would mean Michael would lose his son forever.
The year is 2010. John Raley has been fighting to free Michael Morton for six years, when they go in front of the Third Court of Appeals. While the court is deliberating, John Bradley takes to the media, in an attempt to sabotage their efforts.
It will take months before they get the results back from the test. During that time, John Raley’s office sends a Freedom of Information Act request to gain access to Ken Anderson’s files on the trial. They wanna know, what else could John Bradley, and Ken Anderson want to hide. But the truth, is far more disturbing than Raley ever expected.
The investigation done in 1986 showed Michael should never have been the prime suspect.There was a footprint in the mud behind the home, that no one had ever done a plaster cast of. There were strange fingerprints on the sliding glass door, but no one had ever run those prints. There was a sighting of a strange man in a green van, in the days before the murder, in the same area where the blue bandana was found, and the man was seen walking into the woods behind Christine and Michael’s house.
This information was concealed for 25 years. It was with held from the defense, from the court, and from the jury. Ken Anderson knew that Michael was innocent, but he still sent him to prison for life, and let the monster who killed his wife go free, to kill again.
Christine’s mother Rita was later told by detectives, that the man 3 year old Eric called the monster, was probably his dad. He just didn’t recognize him. As for Eric, he was so young when he witnessed his mother's murder, that he no longer remembered.
UNMASKING THE REAL CRIMINALS
June 2011. Michael has been in jail for 25 years. It’s been months since the evidence has been sent for DNA testing, and still no news. There’s a chance the bandana is a dead end, and they don’t find what they’re looking for. Still, Michael hopes. Until one day, he’s called to the family room, where John Raley is waiting for him... with a smile on his face.
The DNA testing showed that the bandana with blood on it did contain Christine’s DNA. Along with the DNA of a man, that was NOT Michael. Then, the team ran the DNA results through the database, to see if it matched one of the millions of profiles already in the system.
Norwood had escaped detection for the last 25 years. And Raley was convinced, Christine was not his only victim. While searching through cold cases in Travis County, his team stumbled upon a victim, whose murder looked a lot like Christine Morton’s. They both had been killed with a large blunt tool, both had household objects piled over their bodies, neither had been sexually assaulted. What’s worse, both women lived within 10 miles of each other. And yet, investigators had never connected the two crimes.
After looking upNorwood’s address at the time of both murders, Raley found out that his house, was only one street corner away from Debra’s house. To confirm their theory, Raley’s team got access to the evidence in the Baker case, and after running DNA tests on a few hairs found at the crime scene, they were able to definitively identify Debra Baker’s killer, as Mark Allen Norwood.t back together.
JUSTICE AFTER 25 YEARS IN HELL
When the truth finally comes out, that Michael Morton had been wrongfully convicted, DistrictJudge Ken Anderson takes to the media, in an attempt to salvage the situation.
What he doesn’t know, is that Debra Baker’s daughter, Caitlin, is in the crowd.Ken Anderson not only put an innocent man in jail for 25 years, he also allowed the real killer, to take Debra Baker’s life. After Mark Allen Norwood is arrested, and evidence of Michael’s innocence has come to light, Anderson becomes the subject of a special criminal inquiry, for deliberately hiding evidence from the court. And after a long battle led by Michael’s attorneys,John Raley and the innocence project, Ken Anderson is disbarred, disrobed, and for the crime of misconduct resulting in wrongful conviction, will become the prosecutor to ever be sent to jail.
As for Norwood, he's convicted of the murders of Christine and Debra, and received two life sentences. While officials believe Norwood was most likely a serial killer, his reign of terror has finally come to an end.
After Michael’s release, John Raley arranged a special dinner for him, at his house. A dinner to which he also invited Michael’s son, Eric.
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