True Crime Vault: Gone Before the Storm

No, not at all. I'm so sorry. You're so sorry. You're all right? Yes, exactly.

“I'm so sorry that I'm just a part of the studio.”

I'm just a part of the studio or a part of the studio. I'm sorry. I'm not as sorry. I'm sorry. - You're right. I'm sorry. Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault.

Listen to our most gripping stories. This case has stuck with me till this day. A five-year-old is stabbed that many times. It breaks your heart and you can only picture in your mind your own child. Devon Denver was five-year-old when her body was found in some brush near her home.

The magnitude of this case was too children-involved. Absolutely blew me away. Now, a 12-year-old is about to be charged in the murder. Wait, did you confess to me? No, I was a fused. I did not kill Devon.

I've never forgotten my interview with Anthony.

So young at the time. More than 20 years later, I speak with him again as a grown man.

“Why have you decided to sit down with us and talk about this?”

It just felt like now is a time to kind of speak about what happened. I've put the world was just tearing me apart. Everybody's jaw dropped at that point. No one really believed he was responsible. We just couldn't believe that they found her in that spot.

When we knew we had just been there. How did nobody see her until the next day? I kept saying it's not done. It's not done. There's still an unsolved murder. W.J. E. R. News. It's 73 degrees and time now for a look at news.

Saturdays are very slow here and normally it's a very quiet day. My name is Amy Smith, the general manager here.

“I started working at W.J. E. R. as a senior in high school.”

Thank you, Carlotta. It's 11.05 in R. News. That particular day, we were expecting that weather. There were thunderstorms moving in. And that's the day that I received a call that a little girl was missing. And new Philadelphia. It was a child one out of play and hadn't come home.

Little kids wander off laying outside all the time. So my thought at that time does not go to she's been abducted or even worse. It's a small town. Things like that don't happen here. Devons was a five year old who was full of life, full of energy. Happy, definitely happy, spoiled, little girl.

I always wanted to wear a dress. However, she was, she went to play with the boys also.

When Devon's family had moved into that apartment in front of us, my mother and her mother became friends. I sometimes help her draw, help her pain, she's a consisted of me. Devon Donnerberg was living in New Philadelphia in an apartment complex with her mother and her brother, Dylan.

My cousin said this is the safest place to raise children. She said it was good school, good community, good people. Therefore, I moved to New Philadelphia. But during the afternoon of June 27, 1998, everything would change for Lori. We had gotten home and she went outside to play.

Everything was fine, and she came home at 1.30. I said, "We're going to go to the grocery store. We're not going nowhere. I went upstairs to get ready." Her son was in the house for a while, and then Devon had gone outside. I came down at 10 minutes or two, and I had asked Dylan, "Where's Devon?"

He said, "She went outside, and Dylan, my yelp for her, and she never came."

It was around 2 p.m. when Lori done her realized her daughter isn't where she thinks she should be. When I got to the house, I noticed Devon's mom was outside looking for her and asking for her. This was about probably five after two, somewhere around there. Anthony was at that point, I mean, from the woods. She had asked me back to help look for Devon, and she'd give me five bucks.

It's okay. We'll five dollars to a 12-year-old kid's lot.

She had no reason being with him home.

She was very independent. We were assuming that she was down at a little girl named Caitlyn's house. We'd been down to Caitlyn's numerous times, and the little girl was not home. And we just kept searching. Lori did, but a lot of parents said she's calling for her, asking other kids, and you've seen Devon.

“And I think she actually got the car to drive to a couple of houses nearby where Devon would play with other kids or age.”

I remember her mother saying that Devon has a tendency to venture off, wander off. So I figured, well, we can just probably go down. I just looked in the area, and look for her body. We did that for a few hours. And then we stopped because my major film was going to blow him. My name is Dan Riceinger. I was a police officer, employed by the City of New Philadelphia Police Department. On June 27th, 1998, I entered the phone, and the hysterical female was reporting her five-year-old daughter, Missy.

My cousin had went to Caitlyn's house one more time, and went to the neighbors, and the neighbor said that that family was on vacation. And at that point, we'd call the police. Lori had indicated that she'd last seen her daughter, one-thirty, and he afternoon. And she didn't call the police department to 11 minutes after eight to that night. Right away, we're six hours behind on trying to locate her.

The police called here and gave the official word that there was a search with neighbors, and that they were desperately seeking this girl. And our new director, Jennifer Clark, had arrived and took that phone call and began making announcements on there. The weather was going to be really bad, so we really wanted to find her.

“So we wanted to get on the air, what was happening?”

Do you want to help this is where you go? My daughter-in-law called me and said they'd just heard on the radio, there was a little girl missing. And because my son went missing for about seven hours when he was just under three years old, there wasn't any place else for me to be, but out the search for her, Daven.

The community really pulled together, and it was amazing, actually.

I don't know the exact number for Saturday night, but I think it was around four to four hundred and fifty people that were searching. You're maybe picturing this little five-year-old girl who might be hurt somewhere. I mean, I can only imagine the intensity that I would have felt by was searching. The fire that they gave us had Daven's picture, her description, what she was wearing. I was thinking about her green shirt and how we blend into all the green that was around here.

“Her red shorts, you know, her skin would probably be pale if she's been laying out her injured for all this time.”

There are several neighbors looking between houses, looking under shrubs, looking at the sheds and garages. Any place that she could be hiding, we were looking. We searched all around her house and we searched in the woods for the spot on which she lived, and she wasn't there. There was flashlights all over the place, and the whole field looked like fireflies. They went through the woods and looked everywhere, and looked all over the place could not find Daven.

We searched all in life for up into the next morning. I was just panicked, just everybody was like, "All worries, I'm the okay, I'm the okay." And I knew it wasn't going to be okay. And not this length I'm just going on.

I never expected what I found when we went searching.

I just said, "Oh my God, oh my God, call 911." We all come together. We all bow your heads and reverence, please. Heavenly Father, let this happen today, Lord, that they find this young girl. Find her safe.

It was a Sunday morning, and we heard on the radio, they were asking for volunteers because this little girl was missing. At that point, my husband and I looked at each other and said, "We have to go." The weather was nice. It wasn't nothing like it was the night before. People even strangers coming every square inch of the town looking for Daven. My name is Cathy Davis. I was reporting for WEWS, TV5, and Cleveland back in 1998.

We got some more people in the group. We wouldn't have covered a story in New Philadelphia that wasn't a big story. And this was a big story. There were a lot of people who came out from grandparents to little kids searching for a little girl.

I would guess it to be maybe half the size of a football field.

“And although there is some brush and obviously trees and stuff, it wasn't extremely dense all the way through.”

Certainly not everybody was in the woods. A lot of people were passing through there. If I got up in the morning eight o'clock, I walked over to that area. It just searched that spot. When we searched, it was very, very strategic, very down on the ground, pull apart everything. My husband would go inside on the where I could not see him.

We had long sticks and we would poke through until I could see him again.

So that that way between the two of us, we could see everything.

She wasn't there. But was after noon probably maybe a year round one-ish.

“When one of the ladies that I worked with as an EMT, she called me and asked me if I'd be interested to help look for this little girl.”

We've been here for a couple hours and we've searched upon three times. When we got there, they told us that she was wearing red shorts and a green shirt. When we went into the woods, we was moving towards the apartment where she lived at. I looked over to my left and there was a tree that was down over there. And I looked all around the tree, I figured if you know, maybe if it just fell, you know, possibly she could be under underneath there.

And then I turned away from the tree and I turned back to my right and there was another patch of woods that there was briar bushes and stuff all there. Something said, you know, look over to your left. I approached the bushes, I could see her red shorts. I just said, oh my god, oh my god. I found her, call 911.

The daughter of her body was found on the next day, about 24 hours after her mum realized she was gone in this wooded area behind her house. I had to climb over the briar bushes and I leaned down and tried to check for a pulse to see if hopefully she was still alive, but there was no pulse. New Philadelphia Police Captain Jeff Urban, the lead detective on the case, would discuss the investigation in a later deposition. Two women had discovered the body, and I went with one of them who showed me where the body was and pointed that out.

The body was underneath what I believed not to be honey suckle that was leaning out over top of her. When Captain Urban came in, he stood at the doorway and he said, we found her. I could tell just the way he said it, and I took off in a little room screaming.

“I remember on my sister Jill saying, she breathing and Captain Urban said, no.”

And that was humbling. She would be found in a field a block from her home. I thought he'd say there are no boyfriends signs of trauma and she was fully clothed. So many trees had fallen in the storms.

At first there was maybe some speculation that it was just a terrible accident.

They had come back and told me that she had fell out of a tree, or a tree had fell on her, and she had broken her neck. And I know it sounds really stupid, but I was okay with that because I knew that it would be painless. But the corner would inform police that Devon was in fact murdered. I remember he said it appeared to him that she had been chased in this area. It appeared that she had been knocked down, stabbed, and died where we found her.

Police won't talk about the murder weapon or motive. It turns out she suffered seven stab wounds in the back. That is why this case has stuck with me until this day. A five-year-old is stabbed that many times. It breaks your heart and you can only picture in your mind happening to your own child.

I don't recall ever having heard about a child being murdered, and you've a little bit of prior to that. It was absolutely the last outcome that I expected. Devon lived in this apartment with her mother and her brother. Her body was found practically in their own backyard.

Searchers looking through a field, found her over in that area,

When I was doing this stand-up to show where her body was found, it was so close to the apartment. I mean it was like a literally stone's throw. Hundreds around town pitched into search like Ron regular. Matter of fact, I'm around that same spot where the found her,

I don't see a high-mister, but it's one thing to guess. We was going back out that day to look for her again. And that's when I found out they had found her. We stopped by the police department and they showed me the pictures of her body. And I felt a place in New Philiot.

She was a third that night before.

I was surprised that she was located that close proximity to where she lived.

“The thing I remember thinking was about how many people had been out searching for her”

and how did nobody see her until the next day that stuck out even at the time as a teenager how strange that was. We just couldn't believe that they found her in that spot. When we knew we had just been there. It did seem kind of uncanny that you have all these people in a relatively small area.

And nobody sees this. This whole town is grieving and hoping a killer is caught. How do you feel about her death? It's very, very, very painful of Christ on time because she's gone. It's very, very hard.

You think this happens to other people. This can't happen to us. It's not reality for everyday people. And it is. It really is.

The outcome is heartbreaking.

“So our next objective is to find a culprit to get a conviction.”

It was terrifying. Now not only do we have the tragic loss of a little girl, but we also have a murderer on the loose. It's a crime that's stunned a small Tuscarolous County community. When the body of five-year-old Devon Donaver was found,

the community of New Philadelphia began to ache in many ways. All of a sudden you have this young girl that they find it two-thirty on a Sunday afternoon, stabbed in the nap killed. This is a community where, at that time,

we had an average of about one homicide per year for the entire county. They simply didn't have a lot of homicides to investigate. Are we equipped? Are we ready? I don't believe you're ever ready to handle a homicide of a child.

At the time, the New Philadelphia Police Captain and Lee Detective,

Jeff Urban, was heading up only his second murder investigation

in his then 18-year career. As in most cases, Detective Urban starts by looking at the parents. Who else to think of? I'm more in that for that matter. The murders are kids. Police took notice,

Lori waited six hours to notify them of Devon's disappearance. The time element was the problem that I had with it. At one-third of the afternoon, not to report a missing to the police department until 8/11 that night. As a parent, I would have contacted to police department immediately

to activate any resources available to attempt to locate this little girl. The day after Devon's body is found, Detective Urban tells Lori he wants to come back later to conduct a search of her home.

I find papers for them to search my house. Police report finding nothing suspicious in Lori's home.

Ultimately, as other leads emerge, authorities

no longer consider Lori a person of interest. Police then turned their attention to Devon's father, who Lori says told her he couldn't help her search when she called him before contacting police. Do you recall her telling you that the reason he gave

“for not coming over was because he was too drunk to drive?”

Yes, I do remember something about that. But new Philadelphia police that they were able to confirm the father's whereabouts, clearing him as a person of interest. Investigators then questioned the next family member, Devon's eight-year-old brother.

Notes from a third-grade teacher describe some very troubling details about his behavior. Could you read what that says? Very violent, blood-curdling picture, Freddy Krueger, favorite movie, suspended four times

Devon's brother was given a voice stress analysis, which is the equivalent of a lie detector test for minors. He passed it and was ruled out. While police are looking into Devon's inner circle, they also have their eyes on Lori's ex-boyfriend.

We're kind of hearing bits and pieces about their relationship, and he apparently had some violent tendencies. He had evidently taken Devon when Lori had lived in Columbus and taken her for several days had her with him away from the mother.

He was never charged for that incident.

Lori would later tell police that this was the main reason long to report Devon missing. She said she received little assistance from police back then. But Lori's ex-boyfriend gave an alibi for June 27th the day Devon went missing,

and police eliminated him as a person of interest. The Columbus Police Department checked the alibi, and I didn't do anything further with it. Nothing capable of it. All we heard was that he'd been ruled out.

“Remember that a couple of search dogs following Devon's scent”

stopped at a house. A registered sex offender lived adjacent to the home where dogs hit Devon's scent.

Police would eventually rule this sex offender out

after giving him a lie detector test, which he passed. And then you have the neighbor, Anthony Harris. As lead detective Urban tries to piece together the timeline, he learns that Devon was last seen headed toward the woods at around 145 p.m.

which is around the same time that young Anthony Harris, Devon's neighbor. Told police he was in that area. And you had lived in that neighborhood for a long time? And then they were hurt for about a year now. What were the neighbors like?

The neighbors were good, we had great neighbors. I took my neighbor's trash out for them, helped people when they asked me. I just do the things that police people. Anthony was like almost six foot tall, he's 12.

He looked like an older kid.

Put him on sports suit like to do. I love basketball. Anthony was very happy to go like it. He plays, very creative in me. The family's life had been...

I worked as a photographer. You know, the kids would go to school. I'm home, mom would fix supper. We talk about home work, how does school go? Just for typical life.

While talking to Anthony, police noticed Anthony was inconsistent with the time here arrived home and how here arrived home on the day Devon went missing. [knocking] Anthony, you said you came home at one time. I brought so much oil.

Okay. I wanted to drop you.

“What happened that day at around 145, when you were coming from Ryan's house?”

Nothing. What did you do? Which way did you walk? I walked right into words. I think what really made him hoated on Anthony.

Will Smith's consistent season stories, he was telling it. Questioning, you know, what time he came from point A to point B? Which was close to the time. That Devon went missing. We asked him if he knew the little girl and he said that he did.

That she was a rude, nasty little girl who would eat in front of him. And so that obviously would raise a police officer's suspicion. Maybe we need to talk to this young man a little more. Police began to zero in on Anthony's house. Questioning him in a room without his mother.

What unfolded in that room would forever change the course of Devon's murder investigation? I just thought I was in the maze and couldn't find the way out. 2020 is partnering with Vives, open year wireless headphones. That's VY-B-Z. If you listen to a lot of true crime, you probably like to listen

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Terms apply on covered repairs. Police still need your help in the murder case of Dev and Donnaver. The five year old was found dead in a wooded area about a block from her new Philadelphia home. On July 15, just two weeks after five year old Dev and Donnaver

was found murdered. Anthony Harris has taken to the new Philadelphia police station to meet with neighboring Miller's Berg police chief Thomas Vaughn. His mother Cindy is able to watch Anthony through a two-way mirror but she's unable to hear anything that's being said.

The police officer induced me to the police chief was going to be conducting the voice stress test. Just said, you know, it's like a lie detector test for teenagers. They do some preliminary questioning to talk to him, help him relax. We had nothing to hide.

No big deal.

Sitting there behind the glass, next to Cindy,

was Detective Urban, who she considered a friend. Their kids went to school together. The voice stress test would be kind of a prelude to the next step. And if you fail the test, now we're going to take it a step further. That relaxing conversation turned into an 80-minute interrogation,

all recorded on audio tape. Did you do this crime thing to me? I can only help you.

“If you help me, you're sorry you did this, aren't you?”

You didn't need to kill me, did you? I don't know. I think the focus is no. It's something happened out there. And then Chief Vaughn hones in on race as a possible motive. And then a lot of happen in America,

but a lot of people don't have a solution. And it's because we didn't have a solution. New Philadelphia, it's predominantly a white community. Everybody involved in the case was white. The only people that were African-American in this whole thing

was the Harris family. And I know that people react different ways. And they're certain things that trigger everybody. They talked to Anthony about, you know, I know that you hold some of this racial feeling in you.

I think it should just be the call of you. You had a word or she called me something. Or she did you or something? And you got mad and you stabbed her. Those are the things the police pointed to.

Because they had no evidence. Investigators had collected Anthony's clothing for testing.

“But at this point, it's very important to note”

they do not have any physical evidence linking Anthony to Devon's murder. There's tens of soldiers standing on the ground and it's like any other. It's still being interviewed in court. And the punishment is going to be in the end.

They sent all this away. And there's no DNA on Anthony. There was no murder weapon. The interrogation becomes more and more intense. And Anthony starts telling Chief Vaughn,

what he wants to hear. Do you know how many times you stabbed him? Or did he want five times a month? One, two, one. One, two, one.

Great. You had it. Until finally, Anthony breaks down and admits to killing Devon Dunner. Thank you, staff, you're in the woods.

Can you just say yes or no?

No. No. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

“Remember, Anthony's mother is on the other side of the glass”

with detective Urban.

But neither can hear what's being said.

You said it once. And did you say yes or no? Yes. Can you let this be not for me so I have it? Sure.

I have a question for me. I want to talk about it. And that's when Cindy Harris is brought into the interrogation room and sees her son completely distraught and in tears. Can you tell me what?

I did it. But I didn't. Cindy is clearly confused and alarmed since she believed Anthony had nothing to hide. Anthony is coming into the living room. Look at him.

But did you tell him? No. No.

“I can't imagine a mom finding out that her young son had just confessed to a murder”

when she wasn't in the room.

And she had to have known in that moment that their lives were about to take a terrible turn. That day was such a bad day. The mother and I were together one last time. And we were crying and she knocked on her arms over your ass and go home. Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. I haven't hurt. Oh, God, I hurt. Yeah, she was she was. So she held onto you.

Yeah, we held onto each other. Every day that we were just in this puddle of tears. Even when the police officer thought that Anthony had confessed, when he turned to you, Anthony didn't confess. He denied it.

You've got a 12 year old child sitting in a room taught to respect authority that the police are good.

It felt like Anthony was being pushed into saying things.

“At that point, they didn't need to put him on the voice trust as they had his confession.”

It seemed as if once we honed in on Anthony Harris, done. If you're a parent, you're a big kid to understand. We have to just complex your child out of your life for no reason. My son didn't do this. Anthony's mom was frustrated with law enforcement.

I feel like we were set up. It was immediately after the confession of Anthony Harris. The district attorney said he's confessed. Let's arrest him. Good afternoon.

I do not have a prepared statement, but I'm sure. She directed that you arrest Anthony Harris. Yes. You said you were concerned. Why were you concerned?

As the war was going to happen, Anthony was going to happen to his mother. Where this was going to go as far as newspapers and the mess that was going to create. Meanwhile, Devon's mother can't believe a 12-year-old who played with her daughter all the time has been arrested for a allegedly taking Devon's life. Just to write their kid, I really like them.

I really do. Lori would later express a drastic change of heart. Without a doubt, without a reason hold out, any doubt. He definitely killed her. I feel very sorry for Lori's family.

It is a shame that her daughter is gone. I wouldn't wish not anybody, it's horrible. But my son did not do this. Police say that you killed this little girl. Yes, what do you say?

I didn't. Never did. Never did. Never harmed her. Never harmed her.

It was unlike any other trial I covered. He needs the depth of something. He deserves exactly what he gave my daughter. She got the death sentence for playing outside. I felt like it was a movie.

Song and prayer filled the square as 70 people of all races and ages. Gathered in New Philadelphia in support of Anthony Harris. Definitely this trial would have been page one news top story. This one in particular because it involves a five year old victim and a 12 year old defendant made it even more so.

It was unlike any other trial I covered. It was a Shakespearean tragedy that was playing out because there were a lot of sides to it that were real, human drama.

Trying to determine whether to throw out the confession.

The public defender, his name was Terran Hale, was very emotional. So we had filed a motion to suppress the interrogation. Without that confession, I don't think that they would have a case.

“The confession is a very important piece of evidence.”

In this particular case, it was really probably the strongest piece of the parent evidence that they had. All right. The defense wanted to make sure that every aspect of that confession was considered. He was alone. Did he have an attorney?

Did he have some random rights? Was he a worse? You know, he's 12. We filed a motion that was denied and so that was brought out. A tape confession was admitted as evidence after a lengthy suppression hearing.

Confession isn't. What do you do now? In Ohio for juveniles, it's decided by a judge, not a jury. And so in this case, it was all in the hands of Judge Kate. It was really interesting how the case continued to kind of descend.

You know, initially, I really thought it was a very simple case. And then the bottom really fell out.

I never thought she would ever allow the confession to stand.

Once that happened, all bets were off. She was Judge Kate. She did what she does for every trial. She had a command of the courtroom. You have heard me speak about conduct that I find appropriate in the court.

Tarrant had something to prove. That he was a good attorney. So he had to be frustrated that everything he presents is overruled. I knew I was in trouble. And I knew that this train was in motion.

And I'll let something drastically happen. It's old. And you could watch it. And you could see it.

He was so frustrated throughout that whole time.

He was so frustrated. In watching the trial, it seems like they both did a decent job of presenting their cases. You know, he was probably the one that maybe didn't come off quite as polished at that time.

“And I think he would probably tell you that too.”

Amanda knew how to perform when there were microphones of cameras. If you wanted to, this trial, this case, was obviously going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest of her career. It seemed like the prosecution didn't have a whole lot. It was the confession.

You have no murder weapon. You don't have eyewitnesses. You don't have conclusive DNA evidence. My statement was very clear. There is no evidence in this case.

That's all you need to know from me. There's no evidence here. I felt like it was a movie. It's not going well for me. The prosecutor's mad at me.

And then the local NAACP wants to meet with me. I was just flabbergasted. George Forbes came in to co-counsel and he was a very strong opinionated figure and he was very strong advocate. He can't do any worse than me.

And she's not going to listen to me. I need to, I need somebody. And so we're pretty far in the case at this point. This is probably the last few witness of the prosecutor's going to present. Judge Kate walks in.

And she says, you know, I've been thinking about this case.

“I think Anthony would like to have this case resolved.”

There's only one way to resolve this case without a trial. And that is if he pleads guilty. And it was very clear of her intention at that point. And that was outrageous. And that's when I filed my motion to have a removed.

My motion and affidavours dismissed. And you could tell he had gone from the point of trying to get Anthony off of this to, okay, it's time to move on and I'm going to make sure I can get him an appeal. The serious case is there's this tendency if the court system believes your client is guilty. It's like everything gets judged a little bit different.

It's not quite a fairness to it. And one of the things that the attack is the attack trial counts. And they'll say, well, that may have not been right, but your attorney didn't object. Your attorney waved the right. I was adamant, this is not going to land on me.

Where however this case goes, no one's going to accuse me of not fighting everything. Defense attorney for Anthony Harris are trying to show a police sale to give the boy

The whole thing was a forest.

Terran Hale said it best. A 12-year-old can't make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without making this. Lundalone commit murder. And the defense was saying there's no way. Anthony could have done this and not have covered with blood.

That body must have been moved.

“How can all those people walk through even that particular part of the woods and not see the body?”

And in closing arguments, the prosecutor said, the body might have been moved. Move by Anthony Harris. Seems really unlikely. And I thought, how was this going to end? I think all of North East Ohio is on the edge of their seat.

The time for a verdict. And in this case, we're not waiting for a jury. We're waiting for a singular judge. All right. Anthony, I'd like you to stand up till I'm finished speaking, please. Anthony's fate is now in judge case hands, but is the true killer even on trial.

There were leads that the authorities could have followed up on, but they never did.

I told them when I was on the stand that I saw this guy. And he was in the area of where we had searched. I really think he had something to do with it.

“You have to sort of put yourself in that locked room with that police officer,”

who is cojoing a young kid with threats of punishment if he doesn't confess. How did they get you to confess? This was coercion. I was asking him if he did it. Yes?

Well, you were asking him. You were telling him he was sorry he did do it. Any confession that came from it should have been tossed out of court. In my heart and in my gut, I feel that Anthony Harris is responsible for the murder of Devon Veniver. Should have said, "Did not do this?" He deserved exactly what he gave my daughter.

Part of my tears here are a little strong emotions where I can certainly understand. But the world was just telling me apart when I just couldn't escape it. He was surprising to me that there were other suspects that weren't pursued. He was so suspicious looking and he was right there. The creepy man that I saw.

So the real killer was out there. He still out there. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 98 JDZ RZ RZ R644 in the matter of Anthony Harris.

“And now it's coming to a climax and you know what is she going to say?”

All right. Anthony I'd like you to stand up till I'm finished speaking please. Based upon the evidence that's presented to me Anthony, I do find that the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that on June 27th, 1898, you did purposely cause the death of Devon Donovary. And when she delivered the guilty, it was in her.

It listening to the five o'clock reported 507. A former new Philadelphia boy has been found guilty of killing a five-year-old girl. I don't know Anthony. What? Manavulance has filled your soul when this took place.

One week later, Anthony Harris was sentenced to the max. She asked Anthony if he had any comment. And I felt bad that I had not prepared.

I never really considered that happening.

And I was so proud when he said, "Your honor, I did not do it." And it was hard. And again, I felt like I felt him. A former new Philadelphia boy will spend the next eight years in a prison for juveniles. 13-year-old Anthony Harris was sentenced today and for the June stabbing death of Devon Donovary.

After you were convicted, the judge took your mother to task, calling her a bad parent. Yeah. But that conversation, that was pretty bad. Why do you want to tell the judge? Oh, she was a complete opposite.

She did a good job. She did a great job. Right after the trial, I was working on trying to find attorneys to do the appeal. And I also went to visit Anthony fairly regularly. But immediately afterward, I went to see him.

They want you to fail.

They want you to act up. Don't let them win."

Terran Hale knew he would need high-powered assistance for the appeal.

“And that's why this small town, Ohio lawyer, goes to Cleveland to find it.”

Terran Hale got in touch with me and came up to see me in my offices and brought with him a file. He was a team of like 12 people in the room. And they took my little box of the files. You know, it got hard for me to let it go. This was my baby and I was letting go.

And it was so much more than just a criminal case. Anthony Harris remains in the custody of youth services tonight. And appeal in this case is now under consideration. My very close friend and partner at the time, Jeff Mernes and I met with him. We spent three hours with him and he went through the story behind the case with us.

I do remember saying that Jeff after he left, if half of what Terran just told us is accurate, this is an amazing case. And it turned out everything Terran said was accurate. Terran had done a very good job because he had persistently and consistently raised the issues that we needed to raise on appeal.

And had he not done that? The court might have ruled that it was too late to raise those issues on appeal. We assembled a group of hate or ten associates in a conference room and started handing out research assignments. Yeah, I'm sure you've seen the movie the verdict.

I need your help, make what you help me. Paul Newman was up against this big firm. And it was portrayed as the evil corporate opponent. And they had the team of ten lawyers. And I thought, here we are, it's almost a role reversal because we're representing the underdog.

The fence attorneys are expected to argue alleged errors made by Tuscaro was county juvenile court judge Linda Kate during Harris' trial, specifically that she narroniously allowed Harris' tate confession to be admitted as evidence. There were Miranda questions. But we went further and challenged the confession.

This was not just a confession that was extracted in violation of those due process rights. This was coercion. I think people's minds were made up. I don't think they thought that Anthony Harris's murder conviction would be overturned and that these hot shot lawyers were trying to make a name for themselves.

“One of the key elements of the prosecutor's case was that you knew elements about this killing”

that only the killer would know. Was that true? That was completely false. There was nothing there. I mean, they were trying to fish for answers out of thin air.

There wasn't even a shred of information in that confession. That only the killer would have known that came from Anthony. The first time I read the transcript of the interrogation that led to his confession, it dawned on me that what I was reading was the only evidence that supposedly he established his guilt and in fact, for me, he had established his innocence.

So many people didn't know what happened during the interrogation. And then the newspaper printed it. The newspaper printed the entire confession. So people could read it. When I read it, I just thought this does not sound right to me.

When you hear that someone confessed to a crime,

“I think the automatic response of most people is their guilty.”

The reality is very different.

But why would someone confessed to murder if they didn't commit a murder? How did they get you to confess? Basically, it was a trick. This show is sponsored by Bumbus. If people are asking you if you're still working on your new year's resolutions,

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"The key to this case is private." "It's private." "A hour before he died he was on a phone argument about this might be a hit." "You want to truth?" "Pig is one of the convictions in place in your arrest."

"We had a killer amongst us." "Murder at the you, listen now." "When you hear this someone confessed to a crime. I think the automatic response of most people is their guilty. No one would confess to a murder if they didn't commit the murder."

"The reality is very different.

And it's particularly different when you're talking about a kid." "And why did you say that you did? Why did you confess to this?" "I don't know. I don't know."

“"You have to sort of put yourself in that locked room."”

"With that police officer who is co-joiling a young kid with threats of punishment if he doesn't confess. With promises of leniency if he does confess. Separated from his mother, respectful of authority. And scared to death.

And it's not uncommon for young kids to confess to things they didn't do in those circumstances. "How did they get you to confess?" Basically it was a trick, you know.

The investigator he had basically told me that

if you confess to this murder you can go home. It's like, "Okay. Well, I'm over here scared. I want to go home." He didn't understand his Miranda rights and he wasn't competent to give them up. When I teach my students about false confessions, I will often rely on the Anthony Harris case.

Because they need to understand just how difficult this is for children to navigate the minefield of an interrogation. The individual who conducted this interrogation was a trained interrogator. He was trained by an organization called the John Read Institute. Through extended research and years of experience,

John Read and Associates has developed a nine-step interrogation process. The re-technique of interrogation used effectively will cause almost anyone to confess. In fact, they tell you, these techniques are so effective at extracting confessions

that they should not be used on children,

but they also shouldn't even be used on adults unless you independently believe that adult actually is guilty. Interrogation should only be conducted when the investigation has established, with some reasonable degree of certitude, that this person isn't in fact the one who committed the crime.

The entire setup of the interrogation room is such as to create a sense of anxiety, a sense of dependence, a sense of isolation. And that's what Anthony faced.

“What did the interrogator Vaan look like to you to a 12-year-old boy?”

He looked gentle, who's a monster. It's a pressure he put upon me was immense. So I took him as a threat, like the devil would have been in his skin. Chief Vaan says to Anthony,

"There are two kinds of people. They're the kinds of people who are spiteful, who are hateful, and people who are stand-up guys, and Anthony, your mom told me you're a stand-up guy. I can help the stand-up guy.

The spiteful person, I can't help. Once these themes are set, the next thing that happens is a direct accusation of guilt. I'm just happy to throw it to you. Anthony, you did it.

Anthony, you did it. I was scared. Like any normal, 12-year-old. Absolutely.

“I mean, that kind of pressure being that young.”

You don't know how to react. You're going to be scared on about it. To a 12-year-old boy, this was the equivalent of a police officer taking a hammer out and saying,

"I'm going to hammer you on the hand until you confess to the bank robbery." Of course, they didn't engage in that kind of physical coercion, but the mental and psychological pressure that they put on Anthony was essentially the legal equivalent.

And so all of this is coming out Anthony. He's in a maze. What do I have to do to bring this to a halt? She's done that, both of this one. She called down and had the grapple turn over.

And then there was the girl in the grapple.

We should have her behind her. We should have her behind her. And she had you in there, from front to front. I'm going to be surprised here. He was clearly parroting back to him.

Information that was provided by the interrogator. The reason that people confessed to crimes that they did not commit is because they are broken down to a place of hopelessness. I had a force ship or a thrung ship, right? Okay.

Saul Cassin didn't work on the Anthony Harris case, but he's a leading expert on false confessions.

When I first started to study false confessions in the laboratory,

I couldn't believe the number of people who would confess it. Cassin has studied the psychology behind false confessions for four decades. In 2006, he invited us along to film this experiment he set up at Williams College. Have a seat, please. It's an experiment he created to see if people will confess to something they didn't do.

We created a model in which we bring people in, pretending to be typing an experimental reaction time experiment. Tony, you want to be the first type of person? The setup is small, crap, no windows, and mimics an interrogation room. The students believe they're being tested on how fast they can type.

But it's really a setup to see if they will falsely confess.

“We tell them an advance to please not hit a certain key on the computer.”

You see that all key next to the spacebar? Yes.

Wherever you guys do, don't hit that key.

They're told not to hit the Alt key, and then during the experiment, they're told they did. Oh, well, stop, stop, stop, hold on. And then lo and behold, the experimenter explores and says, "Oh, my God, did you hit the Alt key?"

Did you hit the Alt key? I don't think so. And everybody says, "No, I don't think so." Some people do it, "I'm fatigued." I know I didn't touch it.

They're told they did, and the instructor's assistant confirms it, and provides false evidence. Do you see anything? Oh, key. They look like he hit the side of the screen.

Oh, sorry. Sure enough, these students buckle under the pressure

“and actually confess to hitting that key when in fact they didn't.”

Those are everything, just this year. One after another, these college students confess and sign the statement. This is really disorienting, and if two people are telling you something you did, and they say like, "No, I saw you do it. You know, you just sort of have to agree with them after a minute."

Almost to a person they just said something like, "Oh, God, I just had to get out of there." And that's an laboratory. Can you imagine when the stakes are high and you're in a police station? What that I got to get out of here must feel like? It seemed to me that his interrogator was determined to produce a confession

and that one way or another Anthony would provide it. Well, I was asked to know right a statement about how I did it. I don't know what to say, because it wasn't truthful. This was a highly coercive psychological interrogation, and any confession that came from it should have been tossed out of court.

But it wasn't, and Anthony was convicted. The question now was, would the appellate court toss it out this time, and give Anthony back his freedom? Devon Duniverse Killer is still out there.

The first thing I thought was, "My God, is that guy ever creepy?"

It was a very high profile case. The court of appeals heard the case in New Philadelphia, which is where this all happened. When the appeal came up, I don't think I had ever actually covered and appeals case in person.

My young daughter at the time came to see it, and the courtroom was packed.

“So it was an exciting and important moment for me personally,”

and, obviously, I felt the weight of the responsibility for my client. I thought it was going to be very quick, very dry. Each side says what they had to say, they say, "Thank you, we'll get back to you later." Instead, the judges were very interested in a lot of questions about that confession.

I recall all three of the judges referencing their own kids during the course of the questioning, and I remember one of the judges saying, "I'm trying to put myself as a parent and into this situation. Does it really seem appropriate to question this kid the way he was?" I just surprised at the interaction that took place, and I was happy about it, because it's like those judges were asking the questions

that everybody else was asking. Anthony was a kid who was extremely respectful and authority.

I've told many young lawyers who I've had the opportunity to work with their train. I wish they could have been in the courtroom to watch somebody on appeal, take command of a courtroom, and to command the attention of the judges. Dan did that.

“It was better part of a year, I think, before the appeal was concluded.”

We were in our offices in Cleveland when we got noticed that the decision had been rendered. So that confession gave rise to a lot of legal issues and constitutional issues. There were Miranda questions. It was read his Miranda rights, but in a way that we felt was inadequate given the circumstances.

And the court ultimately agreed with that.

And found the confession unlawful based on the fact that it violated Miranda. We read the opinion, as you can imagine, we were quite pleased and I'm like, "Oh my God. They're kicking it back." They said the confession is coerced. The confession of a new Philadelphia teenager convicted of murder has been thrown out.

And Ohio Court of Appeals says the confession of Anthony Harris was not voluntary. The court went further and said, "Yeah, this confession was actually unlawful, he coerced from a young kid and can't be used in any retrial." And of course, without that, they didn't have much. So Jeff and I drove down to New Philadelphia, met with Anthony's mom, went to the detention facility,

and were there when he was released. Anthony, how are you feeling?

“These are 14-year-old Anthony Harris's first steps of freedom in a year,”

and at 14-year-old Anthony Harris spent more than a year in a youth facility for the 1998 stabbing depth of five-year-old Devon Donaver in New Philadelphia. I'm excited. He's coming home. That's all I keep saying. He's coming home. Cindy was pleased, she was joyful, but I'm sure there was also a sense of still feeling the pain. You have no idea how hard this has been.

She welled up with tears saying that she thought she had failed her son as a mother, because she had failed to protect him from that police interrogation. I recall some of the people who were responsible for running that detention facility actually with tears in their eyes as he went off. I think they were so happy for him.

The judge in this case, Linda Kate, and the prosecutors still think Anthony Harris is responsible for Devon Donaver's death. Amanda was not shy about her belief that Anthony Harris was guilty. No matter what verdicts were rendered, no matter what appeals decisions were handed down. In my heart and in my gut, I feel that Anthony Harris is responsible for the murder of Devon Donaver.

I have felt that all along. I don't know why she continued to think that he was a suspect after all of this other than just the fact that that's the only person they ever really considered to be a strong suspect. But it was plain to everybody else.

There was no evidence.

There never was evidence.

It was a circus from the start. 2020 reached out to Judge Kate for comment, but she did not respond. So is this something you want to forget? I don't want to forget. I want to move forward from it.

There's no anger in your voice. No. I don't. There's no sense to be bitter. Even though he hurt a lot, but I'm just not going to destroy my chorus of person.

The things I believe and the things I was no grip to become.

“And that's why I don't hold resentment in my voice when I speak.”

What's amazing? How can you do that? Lots of practice. Lots of practice. Up next, another legal battle.

At this time, Anthony Harris isn't on the hot seat. The prosecutor and the police are. We were accused of wearing murder that you didn't know was going to be a murder, didn't you? The fifth district court of appeals says Harris's confession was coerced. Judge ordered him free.

Anthony Harris spent two years in over five different juvenile detention centers. For the murder of Devon Donovan. What was it like being in there? Oh, it sucked. And it was just chaotic.

I had a roommate who tried to rape me, but I was in there. I fought him off. Yeah. He was rough in there. He was lost in this world.

And it stole his innocence. That's a shame because it didn't have to happen. Three years after Anthony Harris was released, a civil lawsuit was filed on his behalf.

When it was first discussed, your family didn't want to sue.

They wanted, I guess, to put this behind you.

Absolutely. What made them change their mind? I guess it was more or less the view done me wrong. You got to pay it for what you've done. Because his constitutional rights were violated by the way in which he was interrogated, and the way in which he was convicted.

The people responsible for Anthony's conviction would now find themselves in the hot sea. What steps did you take?

“Prior to Anthony being alone in that room with chief bond to protect Anthony's constitutional rights?”

I didn't take any. Do you believe you have an obligation to look out for the interests of that juvenile? I represent the state of Ohio.

My first and foremost interest is to represent the state of Ohio.

Prosecutors have absolute immunity from being sued. But ultimately, the courts would allow the lawsuit against Amanda Spees to proceed. The court found that a reasonable official in Spees' position would not have concluded that there was probable cause to arrest Anthony. Ms. Bornhorse made the decision to arrest Anthony. Crunchy did.

And you disagreed with that decision. Yes. He had some skepticism about whether to go forward and he arrested Anthony at the clear directive of the prosecutor. I made the decision after Chief Urban determined there was probable cause to arrest him and then provided me with a report. The civil attorneys also hone in on the coerced confession.

“You accused a boy of murder that you didn't know was guilty of murder, didn't you?”

I was asking him if he did it, yes. Well, you weren't asking him. You were telling him he was sorry he did do it. There's a difference, isn't there? As you've already acknowledged, yes. You're sorry he did this, aren't you? He didn't need to tell me the truth.

And then Anthony's attorney's alleged there was a lack of investigation into persons of interest by police. Somebody else might be found to have committed that murder, right? It's possible. It was surprising to me that there were other suspects that weren't pursued with the intensity and with the focus brought to bear on Anthony.

Anthony's civil attorneys reach a settlement with lead detective Urban, Chief Vaughan and the cities of New Philadelphia and Miller'sburg are agreeing to pay $1.5 million.

And the civil attorneys also wanted an apology to Anthony from the officers. You know, they understood this was a wrongful conviction and they were apologizing for it. Dear Mr. Harris, we regret that you were wrongfully convicted of this crime. We apologize to you and your family for the events that led to your conviction. The settlement makes it clear that the apology was not in their capacity as officers.

He had the right to have a piece of paper to tell anybody in the rest of his life that he did not do that terrible crime. The civil suit against Amanda Spees and Tuscaroras County continued. They would settle the case three years later, agreeing to pay $2.2 million, bringing Anthony's recovery total to 3.7 million. We did not get a written apology from the prosecutor.

We reached out to Amanda Spees, Thomas Vaughan and the New Philadelphia Police Department with no response. Jeff Urban declined to comment.

There were leads that the authorities could have followed up on what they never did.

Yeah, that's what I found out too. So the real killer was out there. He's still out there.

“Would anyone be held accountable for Devon's murder?”

Well, these three people who were involved in the search for Devon, believe they have information on who her killer could be. I can distinctly remember him. He was so suspicious looking and he was right there. I really think he had something to do with it.

I'm RJ Decker, a private investigator uncovering the sunshine state's darkest secrets. Tuesdays, it's the premiere ABC's hottest new crime show. RJ Preken Decker has that living breed. He's a private eye. It's not standard.

Some bigger and a public mass. Try to get some back to prison today. You're going to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes. RJ Decker series premiere Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu. premiering Sunday night on ABC.

Turns out not to be who you think they are. Everything he told me was a lie. I was betrayed from the number one true crime podcast, The Trail. He's been living a secret double life. My marriage ended with a 911 file.

The tape is blood curdling. The trail secrets and lies. So many people are living with their own betrayal. For me is this Sunday night at 10 on ABC and stream on Disney Plus in Hulu. After his conviction was overturned, Anthony tried to move on.

Join the Marine, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. You want to serve your country? I did. After all this craziness. I still want to serve my country.

What is Anthony Harris doing today? Well, now I'll message him. You and I will work around. Here you are, of course. I think 13.

You were just a child. What goes through your mind when you see that? Well, part of my tears here are a little strong emotions where I can certainly understand. I look at my soul. I just feel like I was stuck. You know, if like the world was just tearing me apart and I just couldn't escape it.

What does that affect you so much, dude? Because it hurt. That's some friends who have kids running a demonstration. And sometimes I look at their daughters. I just, it just hurts me a lot.

There's realizing that my neighbor had just, you know, she was so young and she had passed away. It's hard.

You would have never harmed her.

No, I've never done that to that girl. There's no way.

“Did you go through the area where she was later found?”

We went through that area. You walked around the entire perimeter. You walked around, through the trees, and you researched all over the freaking place for work. We didn't see her there.

Two decades ago, you took us to the spot where you searched for a little Devon. I know she wasn't here. My daughter and Mom was looking at my feet, and she was supposedly found right between us. There's no way.

I do a lot of hunting, and she wasn't here when I searched. I believe some of you were showing a picture of Devon's body after they found her. Anything in particular strike you at that point about what you saw? The fact that she was on top of the ground, and in those red shorts, I was seeing it.

Beyond a shallow doubt, we'd just seen her. A few days after they had arrested Anthony. Hail. There. They came to the house, and asked me to have a person to found the body with them.

They asked if I would go with her and show her exactly where I searched. When I was at the one spot, she said,

"If you was here, you would have never missed her."

All three people we spoke to testified in court about searching the area where Devon was found and not seeing her body there. I had five or six witnesses who swear under oath that there was no way she could have been there. Do you think her body was later placed there?

I think you had a bit. I made the Bios with you. You know?

“Because just remember, the photos looked like someone's through her in there.”

The searcher who found Devon testified that she had the same feeling. When I looked at her, it looked to me like somebody had thrown her in there. How do you think she got there? The police had told us to watch for anything suspicious. And when I seen this man, he was extremely suspicious.

He had his trunk up. It was very old car. It was in the '90s, and humid, and he had a long sleeve insulated plan on shirt on. Nancy, this takes your breath away.

It does. It's just the first time that I've heard anybody say that they saw the man with the grey-plad

flannel shirt. No one else I've ever talked to has ever seen this man. But I can distinctly remember him. And I know where the car was. And he had his flannel shirt buttoned clear up to his neck and down to on his wrists.

In '90s, the grey temperature. In '90s, the grey temperature, and the first thing I thought was, "My God, is that guy ever creepy." And he had long curly hair, like a light brown color. He wasn't very tall, and he was so suspicious looking. And he was right there.

I thought, "What is he doing here?"

“I really think he had something to do with it.”

You also saw the man in the flannel shirt.

And that's why I saw a guy coming out there at his flannel shirt on. And I thought, "We're too that time here to be wearing a flannel shirt."

“Did you tell the police that you had searched that's very same area?”

Yes. I testified at an Anthony's trial. And I told them when I was on the stand. That I saw this guy, and he was in the area of where we had searched. And she was not there.

How soon after you saw this mystery man, did you get word that Devon's body had been found? Probably within 10, 15 minutes. It's been 24 years. With time memory fades, how sure are you of your recollection of all this? Oh, I'm positive, absolutely 100%.

Any time that it was Devon was ever mentioned, that's the first memory that I have, is of the creepy man that I saw real close to where they found her. I can see him in my mind as plain as a day.

“Why do you think you remember it so well?”

He was so out of place. Something about him looked guilty. In 2005, then prosecutor Amanda Spees filed a request asking for a special prosecutor to be appointed to handle Devon's case. Spees said that because she was being sued by Anthony, she could no longer oversee the investigation. The special prosecutor Richard Dobbins said he conducted an extensive and comprehensive investigation.

Over a two-year period, to determine the perpetrator of the death of Devon Dunnerver. In the end, he concluded that insufficient in culpatory evidence exists to prosecute anyone. A special prosecutor was assigned to the case in 2005. No. Never called.

You were never contacted.

Never contacted. This was years later. There were reopening the investigation. I was never never. The officer who took that desperate call from Devon's mother, reporting her daughter missing, says he wasn't contacted either. As for the special prosecutor, I have no knowledge of that. I didn't know it.

And to my outcome or my knowledge, nothing new come out of that. The boxes containing the special prosecutors investigative files landed in the office of District Attorney Ryan Styer. He declined our request for an interview, but told us in a statement that after reviewing the findings he believes investigators invested a lot of time conducting many interviews of witnesses and known persons of interest. And he added, in the end, I concur with special prosecutor Dobbins' conclusion that there is insufficient evidence for prosecution.

I would have thought if they weren't going over the case thoroughly that they would have pulled our names, nobody ever contacted me.

“Nancy, are you willing to work with authorities to create a sketch?”

Absolutely. Absolutely.

I'll never forget my mystery, man.

He's been with me all these years. I'll probably be with me forever. District Attorney Ryan Styer told us that he has asked the sheriff to speak to the witnesses from the trial that we interviewed, including Nancy, special prosecutor Richard Dobbins, declined our request for an interview. Nobody knew where Anthony was, nobody had talked to Terran. A reunion years in the making, the attorney who fought so hard to defend that little boy finally meets Anthony Harris, the man.

It's the week that was with Joe Volosala. Thank you for joining me this morning. When I did the radio show on WHBC, I did shows that grass knee. So, the Anthony Harris shows I started looking into became a personal mission to get this story out and revive it again.

The story of a 12 year old young man whose life was turned inside out after being convicted of a murder that was never really proving.

And a defense attorney who never gave up in spite of insurmountable odds. We've greeted just to a telephone interview and so we did that and he called me the next day. He said Terran gets who called me, said Anthony. He's coming back next Saturday to do a live interview on the show.

I set up the very next week for Terran to come up and for Cindy to get on the phone. And we just had a reunion. The best part was them seeing each other. Terran screamed out because Anthony was such a big guy. Anthony screamed out because Terran's hair was so long.

And that was the first time Anthony and I had seen each other in a long time.

And there's a photo of him and I hugging any places. He blazes it on my shoulder and it was just done. We'd been through it. For me it was not fun and it was good to see that we both made it through. And it was interesting in the reunion show. When Anthony sat there and listened to Cindy, his mother, described her feelings. And he's like, "I'm not going home. I just said you did this. I can't take you home now."

The officer came in and they took him. And I'm going to tell you the parent don't ever let that happen. And I remember asking Anthony in that show.

“How do you feel sitting back now and listening for the first time maybe as an adult?”

What your mother went through? And he broke down. This year in the emotional, the rest you still feel is from all the stuff.

And then being a father and myself, it's just, it's powerful.

I blame myself for putting her through that. I felt like I broke my mom. It was very emotional and it'd bound us all in the heat of a very difficult circumstance. Terran was so involved in this that it affected his family. He basically had to leave his position.

It was ostracized in the community. And basically lost his passion for law. Terran poured his heart into this little thing. And we talk, you can still feel that the hurt, the anger, that just very intense. But you feel for him even now.

Because he tried so hard.

Yeah, it was, and I'm sorry. It was tough talking to him about it. I'm a lot, you know, because those times we'll shed tears together. It wasn't just a legal case for him. No, yeah, it's part of his life I got rid of the way too.

“After the reunion show, I remember Joe saying I want to continue this fight.”

It's a travesty that this case is still out there. I keep saying, it's not done. It's not done. They're still an unsolved murderer. I just hope renewing this story. Whoever committed this crime, their conscience gets to him.

And they come forward and they admit to it. And then we would get a conviction. Maybe this program will make somebody think if they know something that didn't say before. Maybe they'll say it now. No one knows who killed him.

Could be anybody. He could be someone we don't even know.

“But either way, there's still out there.”

Free. You know, the girl's dead, my life has been destroyed, and this guy's individual is still free right now. Sometimes I'll walk in that little area where they're not houses are built over the area where she had died. And I just go out to stand and just stare at it, just to kind of... I guess catch her spirit if it were passing through.

And also, tell her I didn't quit on her. I didn't quit on her. Well, I've got to figure this out. I'll give her some kind of closure. The man once accused and even convicted, now joining the search for answer.

And as you know, 2020 interviewed three people who were involved in that search from the beginning, and of them just one of them said they had been interviewed by law enforcement. That is our program for tonight. I'm David Yor. And I'm Deborah Roberts.

Thanks so much for watching. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Goodnight. And you can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020, Friday nights at nine on ABC. Welcome back, Grace.

Now we're beaters.

“Hunters, you haven't told Dom to kill them both.”

Experience the most unhaired.

I'm not playing! 20. Diabolically Twist-ish. Movie of the Year.

“Tomorrow evening, Catherine Newton, Elijah Wood, and Sarah Michelle Yeller.”

Back for round two. Yeah.

But you're not to, here I come.

“We did all our under 17 on a Medodaparet.”

No playing only beaters.