Speaker 1: This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're
Speaker 1: about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters
Speaker 1: who are played by actors.
Speaker 2: I'd make it.
Speaker 3: We're back. I'm DJ Johnny Joulton.
Speaker 4: Boy.
Speaker 5: It's a hot one out there.
Speaker 3: Get yourselves to the lake or up backyard pool, or
Speaker 3: just turn.
Speaker 5: On a hose.
Speaker 2: Just stay cool.
Speaker 3: Friends. Samantha from Mount Pine just called in to request
Speaker 3: Cruel Summer by Banana Rama. Yes it is Samantha, Yes
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: The dog days of summer nineteen eighty four are in
Speaker 1: full swing. It's the summer between our freshmen and sophomore years.
Speaker 1: Kids are hanging out in now Lake during the day,
Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes and jumping from rope swings into the murky
Speaker 1: lake at night. They get pretty wasted at friends cake parties.
Speaker 1: But for all the summer fun we're having, there's a
Speaker 1: dark cloud hanging over me and my friends Tatiana and Melanie.
Speaker 6: Lisa Anderson's murder was the worst thing ever. I mean,
Speaker 6: it devastated us, but it wasn't like that was the
Speaker 6: end of it, because other weird stuff kept happening too.
Speaker 1: In the three months since Lisa Anderson's murder, Mount Pine
Speaker 1: has seen two fatal car accidents, one drowning, and a
Speaker 1: small plane crash which killed the pilot, the only person
Speaker 1: on board. That's a lot of tragedy for one small town.
Speaker 6: We hoped people dying and all that dark stuff was
Speaker 6: behind us. Little did we know we'd be there for
Speaker 6: the next one.
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Clark. This is The Murder Years, Episode two, Dawn.
Speaker 7: Nine one one. What's your emergency?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know. It's really loud here, but I'm
Speaker 8: kind of freaking out. I think I just heard gunshots.
Speaker 8: I mean, there are lots of gunshots, but I think
Speaker 8: I just Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Saturday, August eleventh, nineteen eighty four is a hot one.
Speaker 1: On this particular day, Tatiana, Melanie and I are at
Speaker 1: the lake trying to escape the heat when our other friend,
Speaker 1: Carla Espinoza joins us. Back in nineteen eighty four, Carla
Speaker 1: is fifteen years old and in our grade, and her
Speaker 1: mind is like a steel trap. She has not forgotten
Speaker 1: a single detail in almost forty years.
Speaker 9: I remember I got sun in at the store and
Speaker 9: I was going to put it in my hair for
Speaker 9: the first time that day. I was hoping it would
Speaker 9: be way lighter by that night because I got a
Speaker 9: date that night. We were going to get pizza then
Speaker 9: go to the drive in. Anyway, the lake was packed.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 9: I saw Sam Foster there with his parents. They were
Speaker 9: on their boat.
Speaker 1: Eighteen year old Sam Foster, a senior at Mount Pine
Speaker 1: High School, is not just cute. He's Matt dilloncute. He's
Speaker 1: also smart, kind and popular and in love with Don Cartwright,
Speaker 1: another eighteen year old senior. We were all envious. The
Speaker 1: two were the perfect couple.
Speaker 10: Yeah, this is going to be interesting and pretty, hearn's
Speaker 10: talk about. But I'll do my best.
Speaker 1: Today. Sam's fifty six years old and owns a restaurant
Speaker 1: in town. I'm surprised he hasn't left Mount Pine. In
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, Sam's girlfriend Dawn would become the second
Speaker 1: murder victim and left less than six months. He agrees
Speaker 1: to share his painful memories of that day.
Speaker 10: I remember the moment I started liking Don car Ryan.
Speaker 10: It was ninth grade in biology class. She was so pretty,
Speaker 10: like unbelievably pretty. Plus she was smart and a really
Speaker 10: good writer. She wrote with the school newspaper, the Mount
Speaker 10: Pine Messenger. Well so, anyway, well, she finally a couple
Speaker 10: years later, gave me a chance and we found love
Speaker 10: like that deep teenage love that well you can only
Speaker 10: really understand if you've had it.
Speaker 1: And on this Saturday night, August eleventh, is there official
Speaker 1: one year anniversary as boyfriend and girlfriend. But their plans
Speaker 1: for a perfect evening would turn into a nightmare.
Speaker 10: Oh yeah, I was playing in A real nice night
Speaker 10: started with dinner.
Speaker 5: I had seen a recipe.
Speaker 10: In one of my mom's magazines for broiled chicken breast
Speaker 10: marinated in mayonnaise and Italian dressing. I was going to
Speaker 10: make that. I can't believe I actually made that. Oh gosh.
Speaker 10: So anyway, after the lake, I went to shop a lot.
Speaker 10: I got a disc out there. I got the chicken
Speaker 10: and some salad stuff and Spomoni ice cream, you know
Speaker 10: the kind with the with the three flavors and the
Speaker 10: little candied pieces in it. It was it was Don's favorite.
Speaker 10: Back at home, I have say goodbye to my parents
Speaker 10: who were going to a cookout. I took a shower,
Speaker 10: and yeah, and I got dressed.
Speaker 5: I was so excited.
Speaker 10: I ran to open the door and stand in front
Speaker 10: of me was Dawn smiling, and behind her was her dad,
Speaker 10: and Don's dad waved as he backed out of the
Speaker 10: driveway in his cream convertible buickre Vi Era. Man, that
Speaker 10: car was so cool, and I well, I poured some
Speaker 10: rum from my parents' liquor cabinet, uh, and we toasted
Speaker 10: and we sat in the dining room. I tried to
Speaker 10: make it special, you know, fancy tablecloths, candles. I used
Speaker 10: my mom's good china. She would have killed me, but
Speaker 10: Don was impressed, just as I planned, and we ate.
Speaker 10: After dinner, we headed out and my mom's powder blue
Speaker 10: Forward station wagon and into the driving.
Speaker 5: We went to see Red Dawn.
Speaker 10: It was about American high schoolers fighting the Russians who
Speaker 10: invaded their town, which which felt kind of real back done.
Speaker 10: But I also chose that one, you know, because they
Speaker 10: had my girlfriend's.
Speaker 5: Name in it.
Speaker 1: Tatiana and I are also at the drive in that night,
Speaker 1: but we aren't there to see Red Dawn. We're seeing
Speaker 1: the Karate Kid. Carla and her date are there too.
Speaker 9: We were at Karate Kid, and my dude brought pillowcases
Speaker 9: to put up on the side windows in case we
Speaker 9: wanted to make out. Most cars back then had jackets
Speaker 9: or pillowcases up for privacy. I'm not sure kids watched
Speaker 9: the movies much back then.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I brought a couple of pillowcases too, so yeah,
Speaker 10: I put the cases up. Don moved closer to me
Speaker 10: and mccuddled. Half Way through the movie, nature called and
Speaker 10: I went to the bathroom, and then I stopped at
Speaker 10: the concession stand. I ordered Dawn a hot pretzel, which
Speaker 10: was her favorite, got some popcorn for me, and two cooks.
Speaker 10: I remember I couldn't hear how much it was over
Speaker 10: the noise from the movies, and so I asked the
Speaker 10: guy to.
Speaker 5: Say it again.
Speaker 10: And then suddenly.
Speaker 9: Nine one one, what's your emergency?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know. It's really loud here, but I'm
Speaker 8: kind of freaking out. I think they just heard gunshots.
Speaker 8: I mean that there are lots of gunshots, but I
Speaker 8: think I just, oh my god, oh my god, oh
Speaker 8: my god, you need to get someone here right now.
Speaker 11: Where are you calling from?
Speaker 2: A paper? At that, I meant sunset four drive in.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I remember this so clearly. Tatiana, her sister,
Speaker 1: and I are watching the movie. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: mount Pine police and emergency vehicles are everywhere.
Speaker 5: It was total chaos.
Speaker 6: I was terrified. We all were.
Speaker 1: At this point. We have no idea what's actually going on.
Speaker 1: But soon we hear people say a woman's been shot
Speaker 1: and killed.
Speaker 2: It was an incredibly chaotic scene.
Speaker 1: That's Detective Kurt Peters. He's retired now, but back in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four he was only three years on the job.
Speaker 1: And because Mount Pine had so few homicides, Peters mostly
Speaker 1: works in the robbery division, but not on this night.
Speaker 5: They were just.
Speaker 4: Talking some people everywhere. I mean, there were two screens
Speaker 4: of moviegoers, not to mention employees of the drive, and
Speaker 4: there was.
Speaker 2: A lot of people.
Speaker 4: And while we wish we could send them home, we
Speaker 4: knew they were potential witnesses or maybe one of them
Speaker 4: was actually the killer. So the first thing I did
Speaker 4: was talk to the young man sobbing on the other
Speaker 4: side of.
Speaker 2: The police tape.
Speaker 4: He said his name was Sam Foster, and he told
Speaker 4: us how victim's name was don Codwright. She had been
Speaker 4: shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Speaker 10: So I told the detective somehow, and I don't even
Speaker 10: know how I got words out. I was at the
Speaker 10: concession stand when I heard something, and then a few
Speaker 10: months later, saw people looking at the direction of our car,
Speaker 10: so so I ran over and that's uh, excuse me,
Speaker 10: that's when I saw Dawn. She was slumped over and
Speaker 10: pleading from her chest.
Speaker 5: I couldn't got rid what I was seeing. He was distraught.
Speaker 2: He said, everything was okay, you went to the bathroom.
Speaker 4: Then the concession said he said he was nowhere near
Speaker 4: the car at the time of the shooting.
Speaker 10: Well he uh. He asked me if I owned a gun,
Speaker 10: and I told him, yes, a rifle, but it was
Speaker 10: at home and I had only used different hunting with
Speaker 10: my dad. And then he asked if I had any
Speaker 10: motive for killing Dawn, and that's and I really lost it.
Speaker 5: Shit. I wanted to marry that girl.
Speaker 1: We are all freaked out in really just wanting to
Speaker 1: go home, but to the cops, we're all potential witnesses,
Speaker 1: so we end up staying at the drive in for hours. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: our parents are finding out about the shooting on the news.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dan, I'm here at the sunset for drive In.
Speaker 3: There was a shooting during the eight o'clock screening of
Speaker 3: Red Dawn. Please tell me there is one victim who
Speaker 3: is deceased after being shot in the chest and a
Speaker 3: killer who is still on the loose.
Speaker 1: Detective Peter says a quick assessment of the crime scene
Speaker 1: leaves him believing they were two shots fired, one that
Speaker 1: went into the frame of the car and one through
Speaker 1: the windshield, and they're thinking the killer used a nine millimeter.
Speaker 1: Around midnight, Detective Peters arrives at the Cartwright home. He
Speaker 1: has to break the news to Don's parent.
Speaker 11: It was late when the doorbell rang.
Speaker 1: Don's father, Michael Cartwright comes to the door in pajamas.
Speaker 1: Heart writes, now in his late seventies, he agrees to
Speaker 1: share the family's heart wrenching story.
Speaker 11: I actually couldn't compute what I was being told. I
Speaker 11: was like, you're telling me my daughter's dead. Our dawn
Speaker 11: has been murdered. It felt totally surreal, like our whole
Speaker 11: world just ended. And I thought, look, if it's that
Speaker 11: kid in the leather jacket that she's got the major
Speaker 11: crush on, I'll break every bone in his body.
Speaker 1: Detective Peters says, a little after one am, he meets
Speaker 1: with Sam Foster and his parents at Mount Pine Police Station.
Speaker 2: I started by asking about his relationship with.
Speaker 10: Don, and I told him we were so happy, so
Speaker 10: in love. We were going to attend State College next
Speaker 10: year together. Don was going to study early childhood education
Speaker 10: and I was going to study hospitality management.
Speaker 4: I asked him again about what he did in the
Speaker 4: hours before the shooting.
Speaker 10: And I told him how my parents went out that night,
Speaker 10: I went to the grocery store and then home to
Speaker 10: get ready for our anniversary dinner.
Speaker 4: I then asked him if he knew anyone who might
Speaker 4: want to hurt Don, and he just moaned and started
Speaker 4: sobbing again.
Speaker 10: I remember, yeah, I told him, yes, I know someone.
Speaker 5: Who might want on debt.
Speaker 1: Sam Foster is at police headquarters telling Detective Kurt Peters
Speaker 1: he may know someone who would want his girlfriend Don gone.
Speaker 10: I told him I maybe knew someone who would want
Speaker 10: to hurt Don. I said something did happen earlier in
Speaker 10: the day that I hadn't shared with him yet. Well,
Speaker 10: my ex girlfriend, Michelle had actually come over. I didn't
Speaker 10: let her in, but she sat on my front steps
Speaker 10: and said she she wanted me back. She didn't care
Speaker 10: that I love Don. She was going to get me
Speaker 10: back no matter what.
Speaker 1: Sam's referring to nineteen year old Michelle Smith, who graduated
Speaker 1: the year before. She and Sam met while working at
Speaker 1: Shop a Lot and they dated for almost a year.
Speaker 1: Apparently Michelle was still hung up on Sam and determined
Speaker 1: to get him back.
Speaker 10: I told Michelle she needed to leave. I was getting
Speaker 10: ready for Dawn and my anniversary dinner and we were
Speaker 10: going to the driving later. Yeah, Michelle was pissed, really pissed,
Speaker 10: but I wasn't sure she was capable of hurting anyone,
Speaker 10: I mean physically at least, and I told Detective Peters that.
Speaker 4: So Michelle knew they were going to the drive. Then
Speaker 4: I wondered if her obsession with Sam was strong enough
Speaker 4: for her to commit murder. So Sam said Michelle was
Speaker 4: living with a few roommates and he gave me the address.
Speaker 4: When I got there, though I knot but no one answered.
Speaker 4: I hope she hadn't skipped out, and then found out
Speaker 4: her mom's adevsk and went there.
Speaker 2: At this point, it was like the three in the morning.
Speaker 4: I knocked and a short bald man in boxer came
Speaker 4: to the door. I introduced myself and asked who he was.
Speaker 4: He said it was how How Michelle's stepfather, Michelle's stepfather.
Speaker 4: I asked if he knew where Michelle was, and he said.
Speaker 2: She's with her mom there at the hospital. She's with
Speaker 2: her mom, and they were at the hospital.
Speaker 5: Michelle was having some abdominal pains.
Speaker 2: He sat around six o'clock that night before.
Speaker 4: Michelle was having some adominal pain, so her mom took
Speaker 4: her to the er. Turns out Michelle had appendicitis and
Speaker 4: was rushed into the emergency surgery.
Speaker 1: An officer is sent to the hospital to confirm Michelle
Speaker 1: is there. She's been there since early evening the day before.
Speaker 1: She has an air tight alibi.
Speaker 2: So that was a dead end.
Speaker 4: And a while later I was back at my desk
Speaker 4: when I was told there was someone there to see me.
Speaker 4: I walked out to the lobby and I saw, to
Speaker 4: my surprise, Michael Cartwright, Don's dad. He said he needed
Speaker 4: to talk, so I escorted him to an interview brough.
Speaker 1: Here's Michael Cartwright once again.
Speaker 11: I told that Detective Peters that I thought maybe I
Speaker 11: knew who killed Don. I told him I just kicked
Speaker 11: this guy out of the building I own. I mean,
Speaker 11: this guy was bad news. He was selling drugs right
Speaker 11: out of the apartment. He hadn't paid rent in months,
Speaker 11: and he was starting to get into all sorts of
Speaker 11: altercations with the other tenants. It took a long while,
Speaker 11: but I finally got him out last week. Since then,
Speaker 11: I see him around a lot, so much around that
Speaker 11: it's like he's following me.
Speaker 2: Down.
Speaker 11: Even says she'd seen him once at the gas station,
Speaker 11: like he appears out of nowhere, and I'm telling you, she.
Speaker 2: Was super creeped out.
Speaker 11: I told him I would report it.
Speaker 4: I asked mister Carr right the guy's name, and he
Speaker 4: said Todd Wilson. So I ran his name through the
Speaker 4: system and I learned Todd Wilson was twenty five years
Speaker 4: old and he had a record, but mostly for drug
Speaker 4: offenses and shoplifting.
Speaker 2: I knew we needed to talk to him right.
Speaker 4: His last known address listed was the one he was
Speaker 4: just evicted from, so her question was where is it.
Speaker 11: I told the detective that his sister might know.
Speaker 1: Detective Peters looks her up and finds her address.
Speaker 4: When I got to the sister's apartment, I could see
Speaker 4: through the window there was a guy sleeping.
Speaker 2: On the sofa.
Speaker 4: I was thinking it had to be him, right, I
Speaker 4: knocked and the guy stirred. I knocked again, then watched
Speaker 4: him get up and walked towards the door. I put
Speaker 4: my hand on my gun. I needed to be ready.
Speaker 4: The door open place where a mess dirty clothes were
Speaker 4: strewn around the room. Empty food containers and beer cans
Speaker 4: clutted the coffee table and the floor around it. It
Speaker 4: didn't smell too good in there either, like someone had
Speaker 4: been microwaving fish. And standing before me at the door
Speaker 4: was this unshaven guy, white, mid twenties and wreaking of alcohol.
Speaker 4: I asked him his name. He said, Todd Wilson. Suggest
Speaker 4: who I was looking for. I told him I was
Speaker 4: investigating a murder and I had some questions for him.
Speaker 4: And I was actually surprised when he invited me in
Speaker 4: corn and.
Speaker 2: He looked nervous though.
Speaker 4: I asked him if he was on anything, any drugs,
Speaker 4: but he said no. He told me he recently got
Speaker 4: evicted and he was furious. I'll be able to pay
Speaker 4: my rent soon. He told his landlord he was going
Speaker 4: to be able to pay the rent soon. But the
Speaker 4: dude didn't care. He just wanted him out. I asked
Speaker 4: him his landlord's name, Cartwright cart Right. He said, I
Speaker 4: think he's.
Speaker 2: The same guy whose daughter got killed last night.
Speaker 4: I think he's the same guy whose daughter got killed
Speaker 4: last night. I asked him if he confronted the landlord,
Speaker 4: if he provoked the guy after he got thrown out.
Speaker 4: He said no, no, I haven't seen the guy since,
Speaker 4: and no, I didn't do anything to his daughter.
Speaker 2: He swore he didn't do anything to his daughter. I
Speaker 2: asked him where he was last night and he stuttered.
Speaker 2: Then he said he went to the movies. Seriously, he's
Speaker 2: admitting this.
Speaker 4: I asked maybe he had proof, and he said yes,
Speaker 4: and he had the ticket stub.
Speaker 5: In his wallet.
Speaker 1: Detective Peter says, Todd Wilson opens his wallet and pulls
Speaker 1: out a ticket stub for the seven point thirty showing
Speaker 1: of Red Dawn. But when Peters examines the ticket more closely,
Speaker 1: he sees it from the Mount Pine Cinema downtown, not
Speaker 1: the Sunset four driving.
Speaker 2: I was like, damn it.
Speaker 4: I would still need to interview the employees at the
Speaker 4: movie theater to confirm he was actually there. I mean,
Speaker 4: he could have gotten the ticket stub from a friend,
Speaker 4: but he had it already. He didn't know I was coming,
Speaker 4: And it seemed like my gut was telling me this
Speaker 4: guy was not the killer.
Speaker 1: Detective Peter says after his interview with Todd Wilson, he
Speaker 1: goes home to get a few hours of sleep. It
Speaker 1: may be a long road to catching his killer. As
Speaker 1: the days turn into weeks with no real leads, Detective
Speaker 1: Peters says he's at a loss. Then a call comes
Speaker 1: in that gives him some direction. Uh.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't get my name or anything, but I
Speaker 8: think I know where that gun, the one that was
Speaker 8: used to kill that girl at the drive in.
Speaker 2: I think I know where it is.
Speaker 1: Several weeks after Don Cartwright's murder, lead, Detective Peters gets
Speaker 1: an anonymous tip.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that gun, I heard It's in the lake behind
Speaker 8: the drive in.
Speaker 1: Peters says all tips are taken seriously, this one, especially
Speaker 1: since Mount Pine doesn't have a dive team they asked
Speaker 1: for from the county. Turns out, the county's dive team
Speaker 1: is responsible for a total of two hundred and eighteen
Speaker 1: lakes and bodies of water. Officer Cliff Nelson will lead
Speaker 1: the crew of ten in the search for the murder weapon.
Speaker 1: He's long since retired, but he graciously agreed to take
Speaker 1: me through what they did that day at the lake
Speaker 1: behind the drive in.
Speaker 12: Normally we use specialized equipment for searching, such as metal detectives.
Speaker 12: It was just, you know, it was just impossible. This
Speaker 12: lake was topped to bottom, thick with weeds. It was murky.
Speaker 12: We couldn't even see down there. So we had to
Speaker 12: come up with a different procedure, which was walking it
Speaker 12: and stepping on things and picking them up and seeing
Speaker 12: what it was. So we decided to link arms and
Speaker 12: we walked slowly, trying to feel with our feet with
Speaker 12: every step, out of the area where we thought the
Speaker 12: gun would be about the size of a football field.
Speaker 12: Right then, about thirty minutes in, officer yells, hey, I
Speaker 12: think I just stepped on something. He reaches down, pulled
Speaker 12: up a gun was a nine millimeter jackpot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it was a good day, you know.
Speaker 12: Detective Peters was very pleased, I can tell you that.
Speaker 4: So now we got the gun, but it had been
Speaker 4: underwater and maybe wiped clean, so there were no viable
Speaker 4: prints on it. But we were able to run the
Speaker 4: ceial number and it came back registered to Leslie Perkins.
Speaker 1: Detective Peters heads out to talk with forty one year
Speaker 1: old Leslie Perkins, who lives in a modest home on
Speaker 1: a cul de sac, the last street before the industrial
Speaker 1: part of town. The house is run down, it could
Speaker 1: use a paint job. Actually, newspapers covered the windows in
Speaker 1: lieu of curtains. When Peters knocks on her torn up
Speaker 1: screen door, a boy appears.
Speaker 4: Kid looked around fifteen years old, maybe fourteen. His clothes
Speaker 4: were dirty, his hair matted. I asked him if Leslie
Speaker 4: Perkins was home, and he said yes, that was his mom,
Speaker 4: and he'd go get her.
Speaker 1: Leslie Perkins invites Detective Peters inside. The place is as
Speaker 1: depressing inside as it is out, ripped up furniture, bowls
Speaker 1: of old food everywhere. Peters explains why he's there.
Speaker 2: I'll got you to chase.
Speaker 4: I told her we believed her gun had been used
Speaker 4: to murder an eighteen year old girl. I asked her
Speaker 4: if she knew Don Cartwright.
Speaker 2: And she said no, I don't. Then I asked her
Speaker 2: where her gun was.
Speaker 10: It's in my nightstand.
Speaker 2: She didn't hesitate. She said it was in her nightstand.
Speaker 9: As a single mother, I have it for protection.
Speaker 2: As a single mother, she said she had it for protection.
Speaker 2: I asked her to.
Speaker 4: Go get it, but fully knowing it wouldn't be there
Speaker 4: because we believe we at it.
Speaker 1: Leslie Perkins leaves the room and returns empty handed.
Speaker 8: The gun is gone.
Speaker 2: She said the gun was gone.
Speaker 4: I asked her who knew she had it? Just then
Speaker 4: she looked over at her son standing in the doorway,
Speaker 4: and he just faulted and ran out.
Speaker 2: The back door.
Speaker 1: Detective Peter says, he runs after him, but the kid's
Speaker 1: too fast. He's gone.
Speaker 4: So I called the backup and fibolo a be on
Speaker 4: the lookout. They put out for a white mouth around
Speaker 4: fourteen years old. He was wearing a zzy top T
Speaker 4: shirt and jeans.
Speaker 1: Police search mail Pine for hours. They called in the
Speaker 1: canine dogs from the county, but they eventually lose his scent.
Speaker 1: Detective Peters says it was as if the kid pulled
Speaker 1: a Houdini like. He totally disappeared. Six hours into the search,
Speaker 1: police find and we find him hiding in a storm
Speaker 1: drain near the elementary school. His name is Dennis Perkins
Speaker 1: and he's actually sixteen years old.
Speaker 4: Finally, right we took him into custody and went to
Speaker 4: the station where the mother was already waiting. But there
Speaker 4: wasn't going to be an interview because Dennis's mother refused
Speaker 4: to let her son speak with us as a lawyer present,
Speaker 4: The interview was over before it ever began.
Speaker 2: So we got a.
Speaker 4: Warrant and searched dnnisis room, and luckily we found one
Speaker 4: significant piece of evidence, or at least we hoped it
Speaker 4: was significant. We found a pair of tennis shoes with
Speaker 4: some small pieces of glass embedded in them. We were
Speaker 4: thinking it was glass from the windshield. We knew there
Speaker 4: was still a lot of work to do, but we
Speaker 4: had enough to hold him for forty eight hours.
Speaker 7: Luck would have it.
Speaker 4: The very next day a witness came for it and
Speaker 4: said he saw Dennis Perkins at the drive end that night,
Speaker 4: leaving the hole in the fence behind the bathrooms. We
Speaker 4: arrested Dennis Perkins upon a second degree murder charge, along
Speaker 4: with two counts of possession of a firearm. I asked
Speaker 4: the kid why he did it. He just stared back
Speaker 4: at me in silence. He was charged as an adult
Speaker 4: and held with our bond.
Speaker 1: I tracked down the prosecutor who tried the case, Ben
Speaker 1: blythe Today he's a circuit court judge.
Speaker 13: Look, the first thing I did was go back to
Speaker 13: court to argue for the charges to be upgraded to
Speaker 13: first degree murder. We believed he not only knew what
Speaker 13: he was doing, it was deliberate, and that would be
Speaker 13: corroborated by a new witness came forward.
Speaker 7: This witness was two cars in front of Sam and Dawns.
Speaker 13: He said he heard the first shot, then maybe three
Speaker 13: seconds later, he heard a second shot. We all knew
Speaker 13: there was a lot of heavy gunfire in the movie,
Speaker 13: but this witness owned the same kind of gun and
Speaker 13: knew the difference between the movie gunfire and what was
Speaker 13: happening in real life. We believed the first shot missed
Speaker 13: and it hit the frame of the car, and instead
Speaker 13: of leaving, Perkins waited three seconds, which is actually a
Speaker 13: long time one one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand.
Speaker 7: Then he fired the second and fatal shot.
Speaker 13: So we argued that the killing was wilful and deliberate
Speaker 13: since he waited before firing the second shot.
Speaker 1: And judge agrees. Dennis Perkins charges are upgraded to first
Speaker 1: degree murder. He pleads not guilty. Nine months later, the
Speaker 1: trial begins. Don's parents are there every day.
Speaker 11: I mean, the pain that my wife and I were
Speaker 11: in was unbearable, and that guy I couldn't stand the
Speaker 11: sight of him in the courtroom. All we could see
Speaker 11: was the back of his head and was still.
Speaker 5: Enough to make.
Speaker 2: Me want off.
Speaker 11: I want to kill him for what he did to
Speaker 11: my family, for taking Don away from US.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Ben Blythe believes it's an open and shutcase.
Speaker 13: We knew his mom's gun was used to kill Don Okay,
Speaker 13: and it was later proven to be a match. The
Speaker 13: glass and issues came back to match the windshield, and
Speaker 13: he got very lucky when a friend of Dennis Burkers
Speaker 13: came forward at trial. He testified about how they had
Speaker 13: snuck into the drive in through the hole in the
Speaker 13: fence behind the bathroom. After walking around for a while,
Speaker 13: this guy watched Perkins knock on a car window and
Speaker 13: asked the person to roll it down. Then he said
Speaker 13: he heard Dennis say something about money. He couldn't hear
Speaker 13: what the person, the woman in the car, said, but
Speaker 13: it looked like she just rolled the window back up.
Speaker 13: The friend said he started to walk away, then he
Speaker 13: heard a shot. When he turned around, he saw Dennis
Speaker 13: Perkins standing in front of the car. Then he saw
Speaker 13: him shoot again. He said he ran and never looked back,
Speaker 13: but the next day, Perkins went to his house and
Speaker 13: told him he was mad.
Speaker 7: That the girl was rude to it.
Speaker 13: She was a bitch and looked like she had money
Speaker 13: and just didn't want to give it to him.
Speaker 7: He said.
Speaker 13: In the months leading up to the killing, Perkins would
Speaker 13: take his mom's gun and just like around the house,
Speaker 13: pretend or practice like he was robbing someone.
Speaker 7: The witness said.
Speaker 13: He felt really awful that he never told anybody about it.
Speaker 13: Thought he might have been able to prevent Don Kyle
Speaker 13: Wright's death and that was something he'd have to live
Speaker 13: with for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: On the sixth day of the trial, the case goes
Speaker 1: to the jury. They come back in five hours with
Speaker 1: a verdict guilty. Dennis Perkins is sentenced to life without parole.
Speaker 1: Don's father bursts into tears.
Speaker 11: Yeah, great, he was found guilty, but it never should
Speaker 11: have happened in the first place. I mean, he could
Speaker 11: have just walked away after the first shot. Why does
Speaker 11: he have to keep shooting. Why do you have to
Speaker 11: take our daughter away, our only daughter.
Speaker 13: I mean, look, as the prosecutor, I was really happy
Speaker 13: with the verdict, but the whole thing was a tragedy.
Speaker 13: I mean, Don Cartwright should never have been killed, and
Speaker 13: a sixteen year old should not have made the tragic
Speaker 13: choices he made that night that essentially ended not just
Speaker 13: Don's life.
Speaker 7: But his too. This case had detected Peter's real.
Speaker 4: Hard This is just my opinion, but he should not
Speaker 4: have had access to a gun. He was a kid
Speaker 4: and a trouble kid, and I pushed for the mom
Speaker 4: to be charged too, but the DA didn't pursue that.
Speaker 4: I also thought Perkins' mom probably missed a lot of
Speaker 4: warnings tennis, and if she had been clued in, he
Speaker 4: could have gotten some help and Don Cotwright would still
Speaker 4: be here.
Speaker 2: I don't know, just a damn tragedy.
Speaker 1: So another senseless murder. Why why here and why us?
Speaker 1: We were all so scared and how.
Speaker 6: Were we supposed to protect ourselves from being the next
Speaker 6: you know, the next victim. Don't go to parties or
Speaker 6: the drive in, don't date, but make sure to give
Speaker 6: everyone money who asked for it. It was ridiculous and honestly,
Speaker 6: really scary.
Speaker 9: These murders were changing us, and the next one, damn,
Speaker 9: it almost tore that family apart at the seams.
Speaker 1: Next time on the murder years.
Speaker 10: Nine one one what's your emergency.
Speaker 4: Well, I went to throw out the trash or dumpsterraw
Speaker 4: back and there's a body inside.
Speaker 1: Another murder, this one behind the Bowling Alley.
Speaker 2: He told me he kind of hated the guy, and
Speaker 2: that was no secret. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 10: He said he did what he had to do to
Speaker 10: keep me safe.
Speaker 1: The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Eliza Rosen for AYR Media co executive producer
Speaker 1: Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Celtics.
Speaker 1: Original concept developed in partnership with Anna, Margaret Johns and
Speaker 1: Greg Spring. Casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting Senior Associate producer
Speaker 1: Eric Newman, Associate producer Jill Hushesnik. Editing and sound design
Speaker 1: by Tristan Bankston, mastering by Cameron Taggie, Audio engineering by
Speaker 1: Matt Jacobson, Studio engineering by Jay Brannan. Music by Nathan Bankston.
Speaker 1: Legal counsel for a y R Media Gianni Douglas. Executive
Speaker 1: producer for iHeartMedia, Maya Howard. Performances for this episode by
Speaker 1: Gabrielle Carteris as Nancy Clark, Kelly Deadman as Tatiana Borla
Speaker 1: Cassiby as Melanie, Maricilda Garcia as Carla, Charles Carroll as
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Blythe Dathan B. Williams as Detective Peters. Desiree Rodriguez
Speaker 1: is nine one one operator, James B. Kennedy as Sam Foster,
Speaker 1: James Donahour as Michael Cartwright, John Ralston Craig as DJ
Speaker 1: Johnny Jolt, John Ralston Craig as Reporter Number one, Sarah
Speaker 1: Alascal as Al Lake Inn comm announcer, Tom Virtue as
Speaker 1: Officer Nelson menaniing Day as nine one one caller Number
Speaker 1: three menaning Day as anonymous tipster. Additional voices by Sarah
Speaker 1: Zook and Alex Salem