Deadline for Justice

You can also get a product market, then you can get your first big enterprise.

With KaE, the development of the Amazon is also the advantage of the development of the company. And that's the question as it is. Where the team, like security and compliance, is really worth it. That's why it's worth it.

“That's why many startups are happy and happy.”

And if it's not worth it, it's not worth it. Yet, start an Alphanta.com. Since the three women were so brutally murdered here, just a few short days ago, the hair gallery has been considered a crime scene. She loved being in front of the camera, she loved reporting all kinds of stories. Many restaurants actually paid to have their fry grease hauled away, but when David comes and picks it up for free, he modifies it and uses it as fuel in his van.

Jennifer told her friends, her parents, her professors, that she would be in Katy Kirk's seat one day. And we didn't have any doubt about that. I was so proud. That's my daughter on TV. I'm Jennifer Servo.

I'm Jennifer Servo reporting. If you have probably heard one of our reporter was found dead at her apartment today. Jennifer moved to Ablin, Texas on the hopes that her life was just beginning. Somebody cut that short. My name is Jeff Bell.

I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo. I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo. I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo. I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo. I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo.

I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo. I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo.

“I've been assigned a Jennifer Servo's homicide case since September 2002.”

My name is David Atkins. I'm a detective with the Ablin police department. The letter lunchtime. We received a call. Apparently some co-workers said not seeing Jennifer in several days.

They went to the apartment. I knew right away. Once we saw the windowsill and the shades were down, that something was wrong. Something had happened. There was blood on the floor.

There's obviously there's going to be homicide. I said it's Jan, isn't it? I just heard it saw. I mean, I couldn't stop. We're still puzzled about what happened.

What sequence of advanced took place? We have no witnesses. Nobody saw anybody suspicious leaving the apartment. I thought for sure it would be solved and taken care of within three months. And then more time passes.

We kind of handed this case over to our cold case division.

“Where did it? Did a good job of covering his tracks?”

I just knew it has to be him.

He was definitely the first person that came to mind.

At some point, we're going to come to an end with this case. And he's not going to be free. All it takes is one small piece of information. He'll pay one way or another either on this earth or in heaven or hell. Deadline Fort Justice tonight's 48 hours mystery.

It's more than 1,700 miles from the lush mountains of Northern Montana to the grassy plains of western Texas. A long way from home for a young girl just out of college. But when Jennifer Servo showed up for work as Abeline's newest television reporter, it was clear there was no place she'd rather be.

I'm Jennifer Servo, K.R.B.C.9. Acawoman Jennifer Lauren and Weatherman Brian Travers, who both worked at K.R.B.C. in 2002. So I thought this guy looked a little bit like Brian. Quickly discovered that the new kid on the block was a natural.

A lot of people say, when you come into the news business, you either have it or you don't. She had it and she hit the ground running from day one. There was no doubt Jennifer Servo was good at her job. But when it came to relationships, it seemed she still had a bit to learn.

On her first day at work, I said, "So you came out here by yourself."

And she said, "No, actually, there's a guy that's with me." "Oh, is he of a serious boyfriend?" No. Ralph Sepovida, who was 34 when he started dating 22-year-old Jennifer Servo, had moved to Abeline to continue what he thought was a long-term relationship.

She agreed to let him come down there with her and stay for a while.

They didn't know anything about him.

“But he had these tattoos covering all his arms and legs and chest.”

And I said, "Gin, this isn't anybody like you've ever brought home before. What are you thinking?" Whatever she was thinking, Jennifer had a change of heart after Sepovida told her some startling news. It turns out he had left another woman back in Montana.

His fiancé, Jennifer later discovered that he had fathered a child during a previous relationship as well. She didn't really think that things were working out and that she had asked him to get his own place. They agreed to remain friends and Sepovida moved into an apartment nearby

after that, Jennifer seemed to blossom. A whole new world was being opened up for and a weight was lifted off her shoulders. She was just so exuberant about him being out of there. We were all fresh out of college, so all we did was hang out with each other. Going out to clubs and the bars, she was becoming one of us.

Her and I took trips by ourselves to Roswell.

“At one point, we all went to the Texas State Fair together, which was fun.”

She was really big into experiencing where she was. I'm here in Minter Park in Downtown Aboline for art one. In just eight weeks, Jennifer became a valued member of the KRBC family. So when she didn't respond to a call to cover for a sick colleague, her coworkers began to worry.

I tried calling her too, and she didn't answer. Left-er-voice males, she's MIA. We got a finder. Brian and I drove over to her apartment. Her car was parked there.

We knocked on her door. There was no answer. Hoping she'd soon turn up, no one raised an alarm. But after two days, it was clear that something was terribly wrong. And I told my new director what had happened.

And he immediately was concerned and said, "No, this isn't right. I'm calling her apartment complex." I just hopped in my car and drove probably 90, 100 miles per hour over there.

“And then remember seeing the ambulance and everything out there.”

So I'm standing there talking to the executive producer, and the police scanners are right behind her. And all of the sudden, I hear her address with the DOA. That on arrival. It was here that Jennifer Servo's dream of reporting the news

was finally becoming a reality.

But her colleagues never imagined that just weeks after she had been hired,

they would have to report that Jennifer Servo had been brutally murdered. As you have probably heard, while our reporter was found dead at her apartment today. And then we just, for 28 minutes, sat on the picture of Jennifer Servo. In the news business, we report on death and crimes all the time.

This was different though, wasn't it? When it happens to your friend, your good friend, a co-worker, it takes on a whole new meeting. I remember walking into the newsroom and seeing her desk and just breaking down and walking right on out.

Thousands of miles away. So I just had it feeling it. Just had it odd feeling something's wrong. Sherry Abel was chilled by the memory of a dream she had had months earlier, a dream that she had lost her daughter forever.

Try to call Janons Sunday and she didn't answer. And I tried calling her on Monday and still no answer, and that's not like her at all. Two days later, an unexpected visitor turned her dream into a terrible reality.

And I look out and there's the sheriff's officer. I get a feeling that I had this dream before. And I said, "It's Jan, isn't it?" And he said, "Yes, ma'am." And I said, "Is she dead?"

And he said, "Yes, ma'am, I'm sorry." And he said, "What happened? Was it a car accident?" Because that was my dream. He said, "No, ma'am, she was murdered." And I just started sobbing, I couldn't stop.

Abelian police detectives, David Atkins, and Jeff Bell began their investigation here at Jennifer's servo's apartment.

We first got in, we noticed the obvious signs

and the assault had occurred there. Right here directly next to the bed is where we feel pretty much the initial incident occurred. There's a large area of blood, as well as a trail into the bathroom area where it looks like

Jennifer's body was made. Medical examiner tells us that she had strangulation

or both could have killed her.

“Investigators collected fingerprints, blood”

and DNA evidence, but their first lead

came from what they didn't find. Any sign of a break-in? I personally do feel that she knew who did this to her. I think she had issues with someone and this person obviously had issues with her.

I know she was very smart and very safe and she would not have opened that door to anyone she did not know. The first person that I thought of was Ralph. I just knew that it has to be him.

Everyone was like, "Go find Ralph." I remember those three words. What did he tell you about where he was during the time Jennifer's circle was killed? Ralph told us that he was at his apartment.

Any witnesses? No. We were able to verify that he was at his apartment at that time. No, we could. But suppose that wasn't the only suspect

they were looking at.

We always recommend Shopify.

It took us from an idea to a real business.

“We got set up, I think, in less than a day.”

With very little effort, we could just focus on the supply chain to the product development. Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility or having to pay a developer.

Well, thirsty total and we leveled up our business with Shopify. Start your free trial at Shopify.com/aU. Once she changed her last name to the servo, she never spoke to me again after that.

It was a bitter divorce that first separated Norman Olson and his daughter, Jennifer Servo, but it was her murder that ended their relationship forever. I can't escape from the fact that my only daughter is a homicide victim,

and I won't get to be with her again in this world. In 2003, Olson launched a website, justiceforgenifer.org, hoping it would generate tips that would lead to an arrest. Are you worried that someone might get away with murder?

It's sure something I can't accept. It's something the investigators and Aberlene won't accept either. These are the shorts that Jennifer Servo was wearing when we found her.

At first, detectives were confident

crime scene clues would lead them to Jennifer Servo's killer. But it turned out, much of the evidence was badly contaminated by the only witness to the crime. Jennifer's cat, Mr. Banks.

It took the live quite a while to actually differentiate between the cat here, human here, and he kind of fibers.

“Did the evidence collected point to any specific suspect?”

Physical evidence? No, it did not. I mean, you obviously have circumstantial evidence that would lead you to believe it was somebody who she knew. With that in mind, investigators focused

on the two men who fit that description best, Ralph Supobada, and Brian Travers. Being a suspect, it didn't click in my mind at first. All they just need to know when I saw her last, you know? It's just a click.

In fact, they needed to know a lot more because it turned out, Travers wasn't just Jennifer Servo's co-worker. Brian Jennifer had a romantic relationship also on the side.

When we hit it off, as friends, right out the bat, even though she had a boyfriend at the time living with her, as that kind of wane we became closer. Travers was with Jennifer just hours

before the time investigators determined she was murdered. Brian said they worked a light shift together, made the decision that they were going to go to Walmart. Seeing here on this security video, it would be Jennifer's final appearance on camera.

Did you drop her off at home? No, she actually dropped me off at home. I walked her back to a car, gave her a kiss good night, then she pulled on out of the parking lot. That was the last I saw.

Jennifer returned home shortly after midnight, sometime after that police believe, Jennifer opened her door to a killer. Who do you think killed your daughter? We're all supposed to.

Why do you think he did it? I think he was a jealous, bitter person if he couldn't have her nobody could. While investigators lacked the evidence to reach the same conclusion,

they did discover a stunning reason to move supper to the top of their list of suspects. She did tell me one time that she did not like the way that he treated her when they were together intimately. Meaning?

That he wanted to strangle her while they were having sex and she did not like that. She told you that?

Initially, supper that I co-operated with investigators

“consenting to interviews, searches, and DNA sampling.”

But that didn't last long. We'd not take a polygraph. Later on, subsequent interviews, he refused to talk to us as the investigation proceeded.

Why was he never arrested for the murder?

We don't have enough probable cause to go out and make an arrest on this case. I just don't think we're there yet. It's been more than six years since the murder of Jennifer Serval, but this case is far from closed.

Of all the people you looked at as possible suspects have all of them in clear today? No, they have it. The people you had a suspects five years ago remain suspects.

Pretty much. Investigators say neither man has any history of criminal activity. In 2005, Brian Travers relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Ralph Sepovid, a re-enlisted in the Army, and served a one-year tour in Kuwait. Now living in Tacoma, Washington, he is currently stationed here as an environmental science officer.

“He has declined our requests for an interview.”

You know, whoever did this is going to tell somebody someday. That's all it's going to take. We owe it to the city, Jennifer's family, and ourselves to find out who did this.

Jennifer Serval was a young girl with a big dream, a dream shared by everyone who knew her. Now all they can share are the thoughts of what might have been. It's all the other.

It's really hard not having my sister. When Jennifer died, every bit of magic in the world left with her. I miss her smile, miss her enthusiasm. She was inspiring.

And sometimes you need some inspiration. We give a scholarship in her name every year. So we remember her. She won't ever die at the University of Montana. I was so proud.

It was so beautiful and it's such a wonderful job. When she was determined to make her a dream come true. She was. And she would have. Never giving up.

It's a powerful conviction for families of crime victims.

In fact, never giving up is what helps solve

the case of another young woman, whose dreams were also cut short by murder. Her parents did something remarkable, taking matters into their own hands, to put a killer behind bars.

Vermont is a beautiful, tranquil, dream place. Stose a resort town. It's a place where people often come to vacation and enjoy themselves.

“And that's what attracted 28-year-old Patty Skolbel,”

a Cornell graduate who was looking for a more laid-back lifestyle. So in October 1991, after working at a corporate job in Boston, Patty moved here to Vermont and applied to become a children's ski instructor.

She loved to have fun. That's what the cow says. She was a family-oriented person. Patty's dad David and her mother Anne couldn't wait to visit their daughter.

She was vivacious. She was outgoing. She was energetic. But before they could make that trip, and became concerned when Patty's roommate hadn't heard from her in two days.

When I hung up from that call, I knew there was something very wrong. Patty's roommate called police. Last night about 830, we received a report of a 28-year-old female. I went out for a bike ride and has not been seen since.

Just three weeks after moving, Patty had vanished. Detective Bruce Miriam got the call. Initially, we're looking for a lost or injured person and the search was far and wide. There was an elderly gentleman that had called in and said,

"I think I saw a bike." The tip led police to Patty's bike. It was found at Moss Glen Falls, a local scenic hiking trail. What did you think when they found the bike? Something's wrong.

A command post was set up and the search was on. It was large. How many people involved? Over 100, for sure. The search involved helicopters,

divers, dogs, and volunteers. The whole community, even her parents, were looking for Patty.

The second thing they found were her gloves.

Yes. There were some rocks. Yes. What are you thinking at this point? Something's definitely wrong. More than a week would pass without finding any more clues.

I'd like to have you come up with King.

Eight days after Patty was last seen, a searcher found Patty's water bottle.

“How soon after you found the water bottle did you find her body?”

Minutes later. Patty's body was covered with leaves, dead wood, and branches. The killer took the time to conceal the crime that he committed and did so in such a way that we were fortunate to even recover her body that season. What happens is you go through all these scenarios about what her last moments were like.

She was our first born. She was everything. She was everything.

The investigation clearly showed that Patty Skolvo was raped and killed.

And the killer left behind his DNA. With the DNA evidence, police and her parents were confident Patty's killer would be easy to find. I expected an arrest, you know, next week. If it wasn't next week, it was going to be next month.

“But incredibly, it would take the efforts of the police.”

The FBI, the governor of Vermont, and Patty's own parents to bring the killer to justice. Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge, and I'm the host of a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far-fetched stories about their families. I've heard my whole life that she ended at the Margarita.

And then, we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true.

He gets a pattern one month before the ride by this, "Oh my God, please follow and listen to Family Lore." An Odyssey podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. I had actually been up to Moscow and falls a bunch of times. That's the place I used to like to hike and sew. So when I read it, I was really shocked.

In a small state like Vermont, the murder of Patty Skolville touched everyone. Even former presidential candidate, then governor Howard D. It was a real shock to the community.

“And when somebody gets murdered, you feel like it's your neighbor.”

And the job of solving that murder fell largely to a young detective. Bruce Miriam, then 28. And I have to tell you I was the youngest guy on that team. So I caught a lot of flack from some of these senior state police detectives. One of those was this man, his dad, a state trooper, also working the case.

He did a lot of legwork from a lead investigator's standpoint. He not that he took orders well, but he was great. And he worked the case hard. A 15 man squad was assigned to the investigation. They looked closely at Patty's whereabouts, the day she disappeared.

We collected all the material, tracing her movements during the time period that she was in store, including phone records, banking records, and calendar information. When needs a bank photos we see here. These are photos with Patty. These are the last pictures of Patty alive,

making a bank deposit before she wrote her bike to Mosklin Falls. The falls themselves are definite. At that location, you can't hear anything, but the water falls. So if she was a screen, no one would hear her. No.

What story did the crime scene tell you? It rather quickly told me that we were investigating a sexual homicide. She was struck from behind, and she was raped and murdered right there. The best physical evidence would be the DNA recovered from the crime scene. We didn't know who it belonged to, but when a sample eventually came in,

we felt good that we could match it to a person. Dr. Eric Bule, now head of Vermont's forensic DNA lab, was hoping to match that DNA to one of 20 suspects, men who knew Patty, or were at the falls that day. They investigated, investigated, investigated, and still came up empty.

It was something that we had hoped to be able to solve since we had such great evidence. But in 1991, we didn't have a DNA database. Vermont was one of the last states without a DNA database, so they couldn't compare crime scene DNA against known offenders.

The skull bills realized that the key to finding justice for Patty

“was to channel their grief and energy, lobbying lawmakers for a DNA database.”

Anything that we can do to level the plane field is what we're after. I was so impressed when I met David and Ann for the first time. They put their heart and soul into getting this past. They were the face of this. Lawmakers wanted to force convicted bellows to submit to the DNA testing.

I was always looking for ways to make sure that people who were guilty

couldn't threaten folks again. But even with the support of Governor Howard Dean, getting the legislation passed was a tough sell. People really are very sensitive to their invasion of privacy, and there was some resistance in getting this passed.

Years began to pass. In the meantime, Patty's family kept her memory alive with memorial bike rides, dedication ceremonies and offers of rewards. It was difficult to talk to them during those anniversaries, where we didn't have any new information for them.

Until finally, after seven long years of lobbying, Patty's parents saw the bill creating Vermont's first DNA database signed into law. They had achieved the impossible. Okay, so long a sign by Governor Dean. The DNA database was established.

Okay, what happened next? Did you get your killer? No. No. No.

The DNA from Patty's killer was run against the first group of samples,

but there was no match. Dr. Buel, who had worked side by side with the scowels, felt their anguish. I'm a parent. But, you know, it's one of those things where you can't. You know, it's a forensic scientist.

“You have to divorce yourself of these cases.”

So the unidentified DNA from the scowel case was now part of the new database. My worst fear all the way through was that either I would die or the person who committed the crime would die before he was discovered.

There's this fear that people will forget. You know, that that she'll be forgotten. Progress was slow. There was a massive backlog of cases and little money for testing. DNA analysis is not a cheap affair.

It takes money. These things took time and we didn't have the funding. But suddenly, in 2005, seven years after the database was established and 14 years after Patty was murdered,

there finally was a match.

I was fabricated. It's just remarkable that we were saying that this is the way to solve this case and it happened. Is this really it this time? You know, what?

It can't go wrong. It's a hit. After testing 80 people and following up on a thousand leads investigators had a name. How would Godfrey, a 59-year-old Windu installer,

who had served time for a salt? I'm feeling like we've waited a long time for this and we're not going to mess this up. Cindy McGuire is Vermont Assistant State's attorney. We wanted to know everything about him before we set down to interview him.

His DNA was taken in 2000 when he was released from prison. Why was he in the database? As a result of the conviction from 1996 for the aggravated assault. But before police can make an arrest, the law, which the Scoville's help pass,

required police to reconfirm the source of the DNA. But investigators couldn't risk just walking up and asking for a sample. They needed to find a secret way to get how would Godfrey's DNA. So they staked out his window business.

“So you knew he was a smoker through his surveillance?”

Yes. We were able to sereticiously gather his discarded cigarette butts. Police bagged and tagged the cigarettes and sent them to the lab for testing. This time, the DNA results came back a lot quicker. We had a match.

People talk about a smoking gun, but in this case, it turned out to be a smoking cigarette. Yes, I did. After 14 long years of waiting, Maryam had his man or did he? I've been here 24 years, and this is the only homicide we've ever had.

It was scary in that. For so many years, we didn't know who we were looking for. Now, with the suspected killer Howard Gottfried identified,

Detective Bruce Miriam couldn't wait to confront him. I was ready for the interview. I'm sure you were back in 1991. Detective Miriam wore a hidden wire doing his first interview with Gottfried, hoping he would say something incriminating.

He said he'd never knew her, never dated her, never had sex with her.

“So when he says I never had sex with her, what does that say?”

He's lying. What were you thinking? I knew he had him. He was our man. What when police told him they had his DNA at the crime scene?

His story suddenly changed. He told us that. He told us that actually he had that sex with Patricia Scoville, but that he didn't kill her. And did he say this was consensual?

He didn't elaborate. But it was certainly a different story than he had told us a couple hours earlier.

Gottfried is a reigned and charged with killing Patty Scoville.

He pleads not guilty. Thank you, please be seated. January 2008, 17 years after Patty's death, Gottfried is on trial for her murder. I want you to ask yourself where Howard Gottfried could possibly have had

consensual sex with Patricia Scoville. Because there's no evidence of that. His defense attorney has a lot to overcome. Mainly, Gottfried's DNA found on Patty's body and clothing. It's DNA is really hard to re-fut jury's accepted.

We see it every day on TV. The DNA between K-14, which was the known sample from Howard Gottfried, matched the DNA from Q-40 at all 13 DNA locations. What defense attorney carried the wolf, then dropped a bombshell. There is other DNA on Patty's body.

Unidentified hairs found in her mouth, which FBI tests showed didn't belong to Gottfried. I did exclude him as being the source of all of those hairs that we discussed. So, could investigators and prosecutors be wrong?

“Could it be that Gottfried didn't commit the crime?”

And the hair belonged to the real killer? The link between the deposit of that seminal fluid and her time of death was so close that it was really preposterous to accept that some of the person other than the donor, killed her. And there was something else that convinced the prosecutor she had

the right man. That assault in 1996, which Gottfried had served time for. He hit me in the head with a mallet. And I felt like I was going to pass out, but I didn't. The attack on Karen Karen was eerily similar to Patty's murder.

She got hit on the head. He had raped her. And I was hit on the head. And I thought my way out of it if I hadn't, he would have killed me. Karen, a district sales manager for Brolington Free Press,

was lured by Gottfried to his cabin to talk business.

“When I came up around, he had a shotgun in my stomach.”

I pleaded with him, I said, "I just got married. I want to have a family." And so I took the barrel, pulled it away from me with both hands. And we started a struggle. And I asked him to please let me go.

And he said, "No, he couldn't do that." And he said, "He had done something in the past." And I didn't know what it was. I didn't care what it was at that point. I was thinking of my life in my family.

Karen managed to escape. She went for help and called police. She remembers saying, "You know, you got the missing girl in style. Is there a connection?"

At the time of that assault, I was aware of the incident. And in fact, Howard Gottfried made her top ten list, if he will, in October of that year. We were prioritizing our leads based on information with Patty. And we had no connection between Patty and Howard Gottfried.

What makes Howard Gottfried so dangerous? He's a predator.

What the jury never got to hear about Karen's attack,

because the judge ruled it was presidential. Now they have to decide if Patty had consensual sex with Gottfried, and was killed by someone else. This is the jury reached the verdict. Yeah.

In a scared two hours, Howard Gottfried is found guilty. [music playing]

Relieved. Relieved for the family, and relieved for the public, because he's a very dangerous man.

“Governor Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee,”

followed the case all these years, and was thrilled with the verdict.

So having the database was critical,

we never would have found Howard Gottfried if it hadn't been for the database. For Patty's parents, it's a battle they wish they never had to fight. He took Patty's future, he took her future. But when they're glad they did,

for all victims of crime.

I was almost a silent, okay, Patty. You know, there you go. We did it. [music playing]

“How is this investigation and trauma affected you?”

Investigation has affected me. You know, the length of time. Right out of high school, I joined the Marines. And that gave me certain tools

and you never give up the fight.

[music playing] See, you never give up the fight until the fight's done. [music playing]

“In 2013, Howard Gottfried died while serving his life sentence.”

[music playing] When beloved family patriarch Gary Ferris went missing, his family looked everywhere on their property until they came across something horrifying. It's a homicide.

Absolutely. The blame game in this family went round and round. This is bloodesticker, the Ferris wheel. I would don't see how anyone can look at this story and think they were happy. Binge the full series, bloodesticker, the Ferris wheel,

on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.