WEBVTT - Chapter 5 | Hour of Need 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:05.160 This series includes sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including sexual 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:21.200 assault and abuse involving children. Listener discretion is advised. Since 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.119 middle school, Rachel Laura has been telling the authorities better 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:29.120 moms than boyfriend Howard Gombert. She told her guidance counselor. 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:34.840 She told Putnam Sheriff's detectives and Carmel cops. She told 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.120 three different judges in Putnam County and at least that 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:42.120 many das and their assistance. And each time she told 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.839 her story, she'd go into a steep tailspin, reliving the 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:51.120 violations and the helplessness afresh. And then I called Rachel 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:56.080 five years ago and asked her the unaskable. I was 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.480 reporting the wrongful convictions of Anthony and Andy. Did her 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.200 help clearing their names? But she told me about the 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.880 screaming nightmare she had each time that she came forward, 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.760 the feeling of going crazy for weeks on end, and 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.320 the sickness that settled in her bones. In the end, no, 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.080 Rachel agreed to talk, but only as it pertained to Josette. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.320 I love that kid, she said, so I'm going to 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:27.440 do this for her. But she insisted there'd be no 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.880 talk of Howard she was done pouring gas on that 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.200 grease fire. So last fall she talked to me from 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.720 her living room. I asked my questions over the phone 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:47.880 while she sat with our reporter, Kathleen. Would you like 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.320 a pseudonym for this conversation? 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:56.960 Give me, give me something else? Yeah, Kimmy, Kimmy. I'm 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:01.400 like all over the place, ew feeling about doing all 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:01.960 this again. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.480 I mean, over the course of the next hour, Rachel 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.640 talked about Josette, about the sweet but love starved girl 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.880 who felt unseen and who'd been grateful to hook on 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.240 with Rachel's family, dropping by there after school and sticking 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.880 around for dinner, spending hours learning to crochet with Rachel's mom. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.000 But each time she went in deep about Josette, Rachel 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:30.200 ran into a problem, a problem named Howard Combert. 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.320 So, you know, to try to get around the whole 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.360 not talking about Howard. Thing about Josette is kind of 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:44.680 hard because he met her at my mom's house, you know, 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:45.840 of course. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.040 So in the end she decided to sit for us again, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.520 to meet another day with Kathleen. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.280 Can I get you to introduce yourself and tell me 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.560 what you have for breakfast or lunch? Then get a level. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:09.600 I didn't need anything today, not one thing. No, now 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.440 I want to give you some almonds or something. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.120 Kathleen sat with Rachel as she delved into her past, 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.760 rummaging old photos and dusty scrap books, reading up bits 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:22.400 of letters. 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.160 So I did you find some feelings that you as 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:30.840 you're going up into the. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.560 Attic It was clear she hadn't done this in a 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:39.000 very long time. Exhuming her girlhood year by year. 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.800 Grade three, it is around the time when it started. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.480 By it, she means the mumcumbered entered her life and 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.280 her home from which you take advantage of young girls 0:03:54.360 --> 0:04:05.040 in and around Putnam County. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:02.880 And you want to know what goes through my head 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:10.640 is how many of them could have been saved if 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:11.920 they would have just listened to me. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:40.600 My madness, laughter, my fears, sorrows, depths are endless valley. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:59.400 My ears, this is the Devil's quarry. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.039 Rachel was around eight when she first met Gombert. She 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.480 was living with her mom and brother in an apartment 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.279 three miles east of Carmel. One day, she stopped at 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.640 a gas station with her uncle. The uncle started chatting 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:28.000 with a stranger there. That stranger was Howard Gombert. 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.480 And whether it was about getting some weed or getting 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:35.400 you know, whatever drug was involved, he ended up coming 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:36.240 back to the house. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.520 Gombert would have been in his early twenties then. He 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.359 was handsome in his seventies, windblown way with a center 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.440 part mullet, a thin mustache, and a dimple in his chin, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.520 dressed in black boots and driving a motorcycle. He was 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.400 something of a seducer in those days. Just weeks after 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.680 meeting Rachel's mom, for example, he'd moved himself into the flat. 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:06.360 The physical and sexual abuse began soon after. Rachel had 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.159 already seen her mom man handled by guys that she 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:09.919 brought home. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.839 She was a very loving lady. She wore a heart 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.680 on her sleeve, but like many of us, she was traumatized. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.800 But Gombert was a different beast entirely. A few months 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.000 after Gombert moved in, Rachel was alone with him in 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.720 the apartment. Her mom was off at work and Rachel 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.560 was folding laundry. Gomber came up behind her, saying he 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.799 knew boys were going to like her. Then he lureded 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.279 the back bedroom, where he raped her for the first time. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.839 I was eight and nine years old when it started. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:54.560 Soon Gomber crept into her bed at night. She'd awakened 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.800 to his hand clasped over her mouth, is growing pressed 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.720 up against her. It went on like this for years, 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:06.359 she says, the rapes, the whispered death threats. She was 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.279 made to feel like her body wasn't hers, like it 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.960 was his to do with as he chose, Nor was 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:14.840 that his only form of abuse. 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.680 Let me just give you an example. Cigarettes were found 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:28.080 under my bed. I started smoking early. Howard whopped my ass. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.920 He whopped my ass just to show my mom that 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:35.400 I was being disciplined. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.920 Five years of this went by. Gombert moved in and 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.600 out of her house, but kept coming back. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.960 For little visits for many years. Like it felt wrong 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.800 and knew it was wrong, but he didn't actually find 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.160 out until I was sitting in health class. 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.600 An instructor was teaching a module on sex ad that 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.080 day and the difference between right touch and the. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.280 Wrong touch, you know, no touching in the bathing suit areas, 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:22.120 And I was sitting in class learning that it was 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:32.120 all wrong. It was all wrong, and it just kind 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:37.360 of verified what I was feeling, you know, And that's 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.520 why you're not supposed to say anything that's why nobody's 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:45.000 gonna believe you, you know, like keep this between. 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:54.200 It was all wrong, Rachel confided in a friend soon 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.280 after that it was the first time she told anyone 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.120 about Combert. Her friends told him adult at the school. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.720 The next period, I was called up to the guidance 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:12.000 counselor's office and they never went back home. I ended 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:17.920 up at the Sheriff's department. I spent the rest of 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.319 my day in that sheriff's department. 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.920 But in detectives arrested Gombert and charged him with raping 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.360 a minor. But it was Rachel who's removed from her 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:30.040 own house. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.800 I just wanted to go home, you know, like in 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.280 my head, being that young and not they took him 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.720 out of the house, so why couldn't I go back home? 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:47.800 A worker from Child Services was assigned to her case. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.880 Rachel moved into the Cabrini Girls' Home in Carmel. A 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.400 month or two later, she was summoned to court to 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.400 testify against Gombert. She'd been prepped for the hearing by 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.440 her Child's Services worker to tell her story remotely via 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:08.880 video feed from the separate courtroom. That was and remains 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:10.960 the procedure in child rape cases. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.560 I remember the day of court and they had me 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.680 in the side room. We're setting up, getting ready to 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.040 do the testimony or getting ready to do, you know, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.520 start the court. I was scared. I mean like I 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.960 was nervous. I was I'm like shaking inside. 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:26.240 Now. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.800 Yeah, it was something that you know, like I didn't 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:33.199 want to do, but I had to do. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.920 And suddenly a commotion. Someone came in and pulled her 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:39.559 advocate aside. 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.200 And it was said, no, you're not allowed to do 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.600 a video testimony. You actually have to go on the stand. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.240 She asked her worker what that meant. The worker couldn't 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.079 tell her. This is the answer Rachel got from the judge. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.160 You know, like he has the right to hear you 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.880 accuse accusing him. 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.680 Frantic, she asked her advocate what to do. Don't worry, 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.560 said the advocate. I'm with you every step. Just look 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.440 at me when you tell it, not at him. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:17.080 She would sit and be my focal point. But that 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:18.400 all suddenly changed. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.520 The room the hearing was held in was claustrophobically small, 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.920 some folding chairs, a couple of tables, a judge behind 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.280 one of them. Rachel took her seat beside the judge, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.840 and three feet away at his lawyer's table, sat convert. 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:41.280 He was put basically right in front of me feet 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:51.400 do I and Howard's got this look and scared shut 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:51.680 at me. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.600 And then there was his lawyer. The name of that 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.959 lawyer Bob A. Leader before he represented Anthony for the 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:06.520 murder of Josette. Right. Bobby Leader was Howard Gombert's lawyer. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.720 I don't remember what the questions was, but it was, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.080 you know, like pertraining to what I am accusing him of, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:21.800 or what happened or the incident or you know, I'm 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.800 sure it had to do with what I said in 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.080 the first place, you know, like what brought me to 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:28.280 that guidance counselor. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:34.320 Rachel started his story, tripping over the words, trying just 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.559 to breathe and not pass out. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.760 And I started, like I did. I testified one hundred 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:50.800 percent with my head down for reason. And the judge, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:56.920 I can't even remember who he was, he said, I 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.400 can't hear you. Pick up your head. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:08.920 She did, and there were Gombert's eyes staring back at her. 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:14.920 They just become dark, and it's like they pierced through 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:25.960 you and brose me, and it just became overwhelming for me, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.480 and I walked off, said I couldn't do it. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.520 Rachel bolted from her chair and fled the room. There 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.720 was no hope of getting her back into the chair. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.640 The rape charge was dropped, Gombert was released. The prosecutor 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:53.120 told the papers that Rachel recanted whipsawed. Rachel returned to 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.000 the group home. Several months later, her mom moved to Carmel. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.400 She took an apartment down the road from the group home. 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.839 Rachel moved back home when her at the age of fifteen, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:06.760 and guess who was waiting for her there. 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:17.320 Howard was still around. My mom thought that if she 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:22.680 was there, nothing would happen. There was people around, I 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.840 was protected. She was wrong. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.000 One of Howard's spots was the woods off Fields Lane. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.560 He put Rachel on the back of his bike and 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.720 take her to his secret place there where he'd do 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:45.880 whatever he wanted with her. After he split with Rachel's mom, Gomber, 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.840 now in his late twenties, moved in with his teen girlfriend, 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.880 but he'd still drop by Rachel's mom's apartment. Sometimes he 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.840 drag his girlfriend along, other times he'd show up solo. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.720 He just seemed to somehow know when Rachel was alone 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.400 there and to steal up from behind her wherever she 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:12.240 happened to be. Still, Rachel tried to live in normal adolescence. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.000 She hung with her friends in Carmel after school. She 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:20.040 had her first boyfriends who looked after Josette, who kept 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.960 showing up at her house. The girl was there so 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.680 often she was practically on the lease, and that's where 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:32.360 she got to know Gombert. After Josette was killed, Rachel's 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:36.360 mom told the cops that Gombert took an interest in Josette, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.280 and that Josette returned his interest and would ask about 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:45.520 him when he wasn't around. In the fall of ninety three, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.880 Rachel felt pregnant. She'd know if the baby was her 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.640 boyfriends or Gomberts. As it happened, She was with Gombert 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.480 the day she got the news from the doctor. When 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.360 she got off the phone and told him, Gombert lost 0:15:59.360 --> 0:15:59.960 his mind. 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.920 He told me that I was moving in with him. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.400 That wasn't an invitation, it was an order. She was 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.360 going to be the living sitter for Gombert's toddler, the 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.160 baby had with his girlfriend or else. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.880 He told me that if I didn't tell my mom 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.640 that I was going to move in with him to 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.600 watch his daughter. That he was going to get Joe 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.280 set too, and he said, no, I'm going to leave 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.360 her alone. 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.760 And that's when she told Gombert that she was moving 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.800 at a carmel. They fought about her leaving and his 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.240 designs on Josette until Rachel couldn't take it anymore. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.880 And I just wanted to go home. It was a 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.920 rough day, you know. He went through a lot of 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.160 that day with Howard, but. 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.800 It was late by then she was miles from home. 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.200 She had no choice but to accept a ride from Gombert. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.640 Somehow I ended up on that bike and he was 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:04.560 bringing me home. 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.080 Sitting behind him, Rachel watched the road. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:18.080 He goes to make a right. Shouldn't have like, why 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:24.800 are you going up this road? But he went to turn. 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.639 I never held onto him. I didn't like, you know, 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.000 but I'm on the back of a motorcycle. So I 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:39.280 kind of had his jacket and I felt the knife. 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.280 He always had a knife on him. He always had 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:47.520 some kind of weapon, and I just got this feeling 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.720 he's going to kill me. I didn't know why he 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:58.120 was turning. I didn't know where he was going. Then 0:17:58.160 --> 0:17:59.480 I jumped off the bike. 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.800 While it was moving. She hit the asphalt hard. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:12.320 I jumped off and tried to protect my stomach, like 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.119 I know I was pregnant and screwed myself up, like 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.240 I messed up my name, elbow, like I'm jumped out 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:27.119 into traffic. Uh, and I just started running. I just 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.240 started running like I just wanted somebody to come down 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:35.520 that road and stop. And nobody did. Nobody came down 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:35.880 the road. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.480 She heard the roar of the bike turning back and 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:45.640 gunning for her. Bruised and bloody, she watched herself get 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:46.640 back on the bike. 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:55.600 So he got me. And now he's nervous, you know, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.800 trying to come up with the story on how I 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:00.720 off the bike. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.360 It was an accident. Gomber told her, you fell off 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.560 the bike. Anyone asks you, that's what you say. But 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:14.400 Rachel defied him. She confided in her boyfriend, told him 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.240 she'd jumped because she'd feared for her life. 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:25.919 I immediately told him what happened, and uh, he was pissed. 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:30.400 But nobody ever did anything, you know, like nobody ever 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:37.359 did anything. That's a really chilling squirt story. My heart's 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.200 coming guessed. My whole insides are. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:20:06.919 Shaking in spite of Gombert's threats, Rachel went ahead with 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.399 her plans. She packed up her life into moving boxes 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.520 and brought them out to the curb. That was when 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.680 Josette walked up and burst into tears on the sidewalk. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.360 The two girls hug well, both of them stood there sobbing. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.640 Quite honestly, I remember, chrisaye, just take me. They won't 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.040 even notice I'm gone. I was like, we can't, we 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.080 can't take you. You know, it crushed me. I worried 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:41.680 about her. I worried about her, but I did tell 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:47.040 her to stay away from Howard though had to stay away, 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.480 you know, like it kind of threatened me with her, 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.640 you know, like so I worried about her. 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:02.119 For good reason. Joseph vanished a couple months after Rachel moved. 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.160 Rachel had no house phone, so her mom stopped by 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:05.920 to tell her. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.080 I was angry at myself. I feel like I could 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:12.960 have protected her by. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:22.520 Staying a long Sidely ear went by. No word about Josette. Then, 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.320 two days after cops found her body, they stopped by 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.760 Rachel's house. She talked to them about Gombert. 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:31.960 My first thought was, son of a bitch. Did he 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:40.800 get her? You know, like Honestly, that hit me hard. 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.080 At last, she didn't trust the cops or anyone else 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.640 in this system, not after that system it so callously 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:53.280 failed her when she reported Gombert five years prior. Her 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:56.360 police statement made no mention of Gombert's spot off Fields 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.359 Lane or the vile things he'd done to her in 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:03.640 the woods. But as I reread her statement to Putnam 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.920 Detective Bill Quick, I'm struck by what she did. Tell 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.120 them that she was freaked by the idea of Josette 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.879 babysitting for Gombert, that Gombert often drove his girlfriend's car, 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.320 a car just like the one Josette was last seen 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.520 getting into. All of that tallied with what other girls 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.880 told them the Gombra was a creep who liked young girls. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:30.720 But those cops didn't drag Gombert out of his house 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.400 and tossed them in the box with Castaldo. Instead, Costaldo 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.080 picked Anthony and Andy out of a hat and chose 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.240 them as Josette's killers. In doing so, he and Quick 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.880 gave Gombert a pass, a get out of town free card, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.760 if you will. Gombert high tailed out of Carmel in 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:55.560 ninety five, lived in Connecticut for several years, but Gombert 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.720 couldn't help himself. He kept crawling back to New York. 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:02.520 That hurt Rachel. She'd moved to the safest place she 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:06.600 could find, a remote cottage high up in the hills. 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.160 One night, she and her infant were fast asleep when 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.400 she awoke to a hand over her mouth. He told 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:16.080 her he'd take a baby and sell her to strangers 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.800 if she didn't submit to him. When Gomber left without 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.760 her infant, Rachel says she reported him once again, this 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:26.800 time to the state trooper, who drove her to the 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.800 hospital where a rape kit was performed. I've read the 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:34.560 hospital report, but it's not clear whether the trooper documented 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:38.320 the attack. In any case, they never brought Gombert in. 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.640 Six years later, in two thousand and two, Anthony sat 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:52.359 in prison reading his case file. He was halfway through 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:54.720 it when he came to the statement that Rachel gave 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:59.080 to police, the one about Howard knowing Josette. 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:02.280 He opened up, this is Howard box, not knowing what 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:08.560 he was going to find, but didn't know that I 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:09.600 was in that box. 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:14.320 Anthony told his investigators to go out and find Rachel, 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.080 a girl he knew from hanging around the group home. 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:20.760 They found her all right, and when they brought her 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.879 story back to him, Anthony was staggered. 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:27.159 The last time I seen her, I think she was 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:30.080 working at a gas station. I had no idea she 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:34.440 was suffered anything, but sitting with her story tripped memory 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:41.200 for Anthony. I rob somebody I'd believe to be Howard Gombert. 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.160 It was an evening in the fall of nineteen ninety four, 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:50.080 right around the time Josette went missing. Anthony was selling 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:52.439 drugs back then, was out with two of his stone 0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:55.760 or pals and Caramel. So I'm out there. 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:58.440 There's the courthouse, there's this little area where there's these 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:02.160 three benches. I'm standing out there and this guy comes 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:05.639 up to me, right and he says, I want some 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:06.720 cracker or some blow. 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:12.119 Tom, one of his friends, you gambled on site. So 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.840 the other kid, Rick, They whisper to Anthony. This guy's 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:18.440 a fucking dick. He's no good. 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:22.719 And Rick and Tom, I'm like, this guy, so you abuse, 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:26.320 abuse mycrofriend, abuse my girlfriend. So I'm like, all right, 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:28.879 well you want to want to do something about this, 0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:30.240 I'm like yeah. 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:33.000 Anthony walked over to the guy and told him, yeah, 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:33.920 I'll help you out. 0:25:34.960 --> 0:25:36.600 I said, all right, we got to go take a ride. 0:25:37.840 --> 0:25:41.080 The guy gave Anthony a hundred bucks in cash. They 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:44.560 all got into Big Larry's Bronco. Three teens and the 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.800 guy seeking drugs, and I'm like, where are we going 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:50.320 to take them? So we're driving around and we pull 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:54.679 up in this little area and I'm like, I don't know. 0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:56.639 I'm not trying to be violent to him. I just 0:25:56.800 --> 0:25:59.600 I got his money in my pocket. I just They're like, 0:25:59.720 --> 0:26:00.800 let's buck him up. 0:26:00.880 --> 0:26:05.000 I'm like, no, just leave him. Anthony pulled the car over, 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:08.960 told the guy to get out, and I left him there. 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:12.199 It wasn't until I had paperwork and I kind of 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:14.600 pieced it together because how many people did time go 0:26:14.640 --> 0:26:14.919 out with? 0:26:16.840 --> 0:26:20.000 We're playing that memory now, the truth that it hit him. 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:23.960 Tom's girlfriend at the time was Rachel and the guy 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:26.879 you ripped off of the hundred bucks that had to 0:26:26.880 --> 0:26:28.000 be Howard Combert. 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:31.480 I didn't know that he was a killer. I didn't 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:33.920 know that he was a rapist. I just knew these 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:36.040 people didn't like him, and I like to take things 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:39.320 from people that are bad, and so I left them there. 0:26:40.720 --> 0:26:44.320 For years. One question that plagued him in prison, Why 0:26:44.359 --> 0:26:47.640 did the cops home in on me. He still had 0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:52.200 no definitive answer, but now he had a theory. And 0:26:52.280 --> 0:26:54.480 you know what, I think. I have never been able 0:26:54.520 --> 0:26:56.919 to prove this, but I've said it to a few people. 0:26:57.520 --> 0:27:00.240 I think he said that I killed that girl. And 0:27:00.359 --> 0:27:03.600 I think the reason why I was first ever suspected 0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:22.359 was because that guy was mad that I robbed him. 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:26.600 It took him years of motions, of failure upon failure, 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:31.160 of judges turning blind eyes to the facts, but Anthony 0:27:31.320 --> 0:27:35.320 finally submitted an appeal that broke through. What sparked it 0:27:35.400 --> 0:27:39.040 was another flashback from the nineties, the memory of a 0:27:39.040 --> 0:27:42.399 meeting with his lawyer, Bottle Leader before his trial in 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:43.280 ninety seven. 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:47.400 We have these legal visits in these small rooms, and 0:27:48.240 --> 0:27:50.040 it was in the visiting room. 0:27:50.520 --> 0:27:54.520 There Anthony remembers Leader telling him he had evidence evidence 0:27:54.560 --> 0:27:58.760 on a man named Howard Gombered that pointed him as 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:02.080 Josette's killer. He told Anthony was going to go after 0:28:02.240 --> 0:28:06.560 Gombert as the killer during the trial, except that, yeah, 0:28:06.600 --> 0:28:10.399 he never saw much as raised Gombert's named of the jury. 0:28:10.680 --> 0:28:12.919 Leader was like, yeah, I think we're going to go 0:28:12.960 --> 0:28:16.480 after this guy. Leader is like, yeah, I had him 0:28:16.480 --> 0:28:17.359 on a rape case. 0:28:18.760 --> 0:28:23.520 That case, Anthony learned, now dated to nineteen ninety one. 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:28.159 Gombert's accuser was none other than Rachel. That's right. The 0:28:28.240 --> 0:28:30.480 lawyer had repped Anthony for the rape murder of a 0:28:30.520 --> 0:28:33.800 twelve year old had also repped Gombert for the rape 0:28:33.840 --> 0:28:34.840 of a minor girl. 0:28:36.040 --> 0:28:39.560 So wait a minute, it's just like this guy had 0:28:39.600 --> 0:28:40.520 conflict adventures. 0:28:40.560 --> 0:28:46.400