WEBVTT - S1: E31 – The Search for Bethany Correira, Part 1 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:06.520 In Alaska. The big concern is theirs. I always say 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:08.960 the biggest danger in Alaska is the human animals. 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:14.400 Less than a week after moving to Anchorage, Bethany Carrera vanished. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.680 She wasn't aware of what a violent place Anchorage could be. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.200 And locating Bethany's killer would be just as difficult as 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:24.280 finding her body. 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.640 We knew where the body was, and this is Alaska, 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:29.720 and there was three feet of snow on the ground, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:31.520 and we couldn't recover a body until some of the 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:32.159 snow melted. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.520 Bringing justice would cost another life. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.000 It was a tragedy for everybody involved. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.159 Today we're an Anchorage, Alaska for part one of the 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.239 search for Bethany Carrera. I'm Slow Glass and this is 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:50.360 American Homicide. Just to note that this episode contained some 0:00:50.400 --> 0:01:01.000 graphic content, Please take care while listening. With more than 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:05.840 six hundred square miles of Arctic coast, untamed wilderness, and 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:11.679 majestic mountains, Alaska is our nation's largest state, but even 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.400 with all that land, just over half a million people 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:15.959 live there. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.560 Half the population of the state is an Anchorage. 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.600 Ron McGee was the public affairs manager for the Anchorage 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:23.520 Police Department. 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:25.840 The last I checked, we were like the sixty fourth 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:27.000 largest city in the nation. 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.360 Historically, people have flocked to Alaska in search of riches. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:33.880 The state has always been about oil. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.319 Along with liquid gold. Alaska was home to the gold 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.240 rush of the late eighteen hundreds that fostered the first 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.000 generation of people who came to the state in search 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.000 of riches. But then there's the other group of people. 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:50.800 In the thirty two years that I have been here, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.440 I encountered a lot of people who came to Alaska 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:54.639 to try and get away from. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:59.880 Something, whether it's the law, money issues, or something completely innocent. 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.160 Alaska is a place where a lot of people go 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:04.880 to escape their past. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.160 We have a lot of the problems that people in 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.679 the lower forty eight have, but Anchorage has always been 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.200 what I would consider a very violent place. Our rate 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.359 of violence is much higher than the rest of the nation. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.120 We've led the nation, for example, in rapes since I 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:21.760 can remember. 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:26.560 Alaska's violent crime rate is more than double the national average, 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.639 and most of those crimes happen in Anchorage, which is 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.880 scary for the college students who move there. 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.360 The University of Alaska's campus in Anchorage is the largest 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.160 in the university system. They offer the most majors, and 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.400 we try to talk to the students and try and 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:44.880 make them aware that, especially the students who come from 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.840 rural Alaska, that this can be a very violent place. 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.960 One of those students who came to the University of 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:55.560 Alaska and Anchorage or UAA was Bethany Carrera. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.960 Bethany comes from this little small community in Talketina. 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:04.320 It's about one hundred miles north of Anchorage, a town 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.320 so small that a cat won the race for mayor. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:13.560 As a writing candidate. Can you imagine losing to a cat? So, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:18.360 Bethany came from a small town, very small. In two 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:23.080 thousand and three, the population was eight hundred and ten people. 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.680 Bethany was a go getter who loved camping, snowboarding, and sailing. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.760 Adventure was in her blood. In fact, after graduating high school, 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.800 Bethany embarked on a year long sailing trip through the 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.760 South Pacific. Then she served as a Christian missionary to 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.720 Thailand and Nepal. But then the twenty one year old 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.480 decided it was time to go back to school. 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.680 Bethany came from Talkeita in two thousand and three to 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.960 attend UAA. She was pre mad. She's a good student, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.680 she's a good daughter. Her parents had wonderful things to 0:03:58.720 --> 0:03:59.360 say about her. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.000 He found a small apartment a couple miles from campus 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.640 in Bootlegger's Cove. It's a scenic area of anchorage along 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.920 the coastline that got its name in the days of Prohibition. 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.440 That's when barrels of moonshine used to roll off nearby boats. 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.000 In the early two thousands, the area was popular with 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:20.000 college students. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.000 Bootlegger's Cove at that time was considered sort of a 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.280 trendy place, a place that was a little more expensive 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.760 than the rest of the town. Because it was close 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:30.280 to the water. 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:37.000 Bethany's one bedroom apartment conveniently sat near several trails for hiking, biking, 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.960 and running, all of which Bethany loved to do. 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.080 If you like the outdoors, this is the place to be. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.760 At the time, many of the older homes and Bootlegger's 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.960 Cove were being torn down to make way for bigger 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:55.880 and fancier places. In fact, Bethany's modest four unit apartment 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.760 building was scheduled to be torn down later that year. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.160 Yeah, there's always there's a lot of development going on 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.719 around here. You know, it's a place that is recreating 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:04.680 itself constantly. 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.039 But it worked out for Bethany. She was able to 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.920 sign a three month lease that coincided with her summer 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.480 school schedule, and that final week of April two thousand 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.080 and three, Bethany's boyfriend Joe helped her move into her 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:23.080 new apartment. But by that Saturday, Bethany went a wall. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:25.760 Bethany was supposed to pick up her brother from the 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:27.120 airport and she didn't do it. 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.240 That was out of character for the reliable and responsible Bethany. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.160 As you can imagine, her family was concerned. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.560 And her mother immediately drove about one hundred miles from 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.520 tel Ketna to come to Anchorage and check on her. 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.279 And when she checked on her, she couldn't find her. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.320 She wasn't at home. She found that Bethany had left 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.880 her cell phone in her wallet in the apartment, and 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.760 that immediately made her suspicious. You know, no young lady 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:55.599 goes anywhere without her cell phone in her a while. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.560 Her mom also found Bethany's car, passport, and even her 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.919 favorite backpack at her apartment. But what really added to 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.920 her mother's anxiety was what she saw outside. 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:14.120 The apartment next door burns. There had been a fire 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.120 in the apartment, and that immediately made her suspicious. 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.640 The upstairs unit of the vacant duplex next door to 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:26.600 Bethany's apartment was under construction and had caught fire earlier 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:31.760 that morning. The unsettling smell of smoke still lingered in. 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.159 The air, so immediately she caught her husband and her 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.880 husband drove to Anchorage, and then her mother called the police. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.400 Bethany's mom told detectives that she last talked with her 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:47.279 daughter late Friday night. It was now Sunday afternoon. She 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.880 explained that her daughter's boyfriend, Joe, had been in town 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.240 to help Bethany move, but there were no signs of 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.800 Joe or any of his belongings at Bethany's apartment. Her 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.440 mom admitted that she did I didn't know much about Joe. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.920 She then asked the detectives if they knew anything about 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.400 the apartment next door to Bethany's, the one that had 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:09.800 recently caught fire. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.480 Originally, they thought that the fire was from electrical natural causes, 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.240 but this additional investigator determined that the fire had been 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.800 set intentionally. That made us even more suspicious when we 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:23.840 found that out. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:27.760 All right, So we have a missing twenty one year 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.760 old woman who lived next door to a building that 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:37.160 was intentionally set on fire. Immediately the Anchorage PD got involved. 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.120 My name is Walt Monnigan. That was the chief of 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.400 police and the Anchorage Police Department at that time when 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.640 we did get a report that she was missing. Normally 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.200 we don't take those kind of reports. Most police departments 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.040 don't for a couple of days because nine out of 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.320 ten they showed back up. But because of the urgency 0:07:58.360 --> 0:07:59.800 in this one, we did. 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:00.400 Look at it. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.400 The urgency stemmed from the fact that Bethany hadn't even 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.280 lived in Anchorage for a week. 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.480 Coming from a smaller town where you pretty much know 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.640 everybody and going into a larger place, you're not going 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.560 to be as cognizant or aware of some of the 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.720 dangers that are around you. If there's a person that 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.280 you should stay away from. In tel Keita, everybody knows 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:29.320 about it. In Anchorage not so so. I think a 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.800 lot of folks when they first come to Anchorage or 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.960 Fairbanks or some of the larger places, they're a little 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.600 more trusting than most people who live in the cities. 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.359 As the police began their investigation. Nearly one hundred volunteers 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.760 from Bethany's hometown arrived in Anchorage to search for her. 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.520 The family started putting out flyers. They basically papered downtown. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.120 You could hardly go buy a restaurant or a power 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.480 pool that didn't have Bethany's picture on it. The first 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:01.480 time I saw one of those, I just thought she 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:06.559 had such an innocent smile, just a happy, genuine, likable person, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.800 and I had hopes that, you know, she'd be okay, 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:11.320 like everybody else did. 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.400 It had been less than a week since Bethany moved 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.880 into her apartment, which had no sign of forced entry. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.480 If anything, it looked like Bethany had simply left to 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.480 go run an errand but never returned. And she was 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.600 twenty one and knew in town. Did she go to 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.280 the bar to not come home? Well, her mother said, 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.840 Bethany wasn't much of a drinker or partier. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.320 We found her person, her keys, and her phone. Everything 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.680 was there. That kind of added to the evidence aspect 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.440 that she didn't just scramble and take off someplace. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.920 A look through Bethany's cell phone gave detectives their first clue. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.840 I believe her boyfriend had just been talking to her. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.600 Bethany's phone showed that one of the last phone calls 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.200 came from her boyfriend, Joe, so the police got in 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.240 touch with Joe, who confirmed that yes, he did talk 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.320 with Bethany that Saturday morning, and that began a long 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:17.120 conversation between Joe and the detectives. Because they learned Joe 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:18.079 was married. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:25.880 Everyone's a suspect, initially everyone. 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.319 Bethany Carrero was a twenty one year old student who 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.880 was starting life on her own. On Monday, she moved 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:42.120 into her new apartment in Anchorage. By Saturday, she was 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:46.400 nowhere to be found. Ron McGee worked for the Anchorage PD. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.160 This young lady was completely harmless. She was a kind 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.199 of young lady that everyone would like to have as 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.679 a daughter. She comes from this little small community in Talketna. 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.960 For a lot of people who were raised in rural Alaska, 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.559 Anchorage can be a little bit of a rude awakening. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.520 I always say the biggest danger in Alaska is the 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.280 human animals. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.360 And of course that was the fear that someone had 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.840 done something to Bethany. The normally reliable Bethany was supposed 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.240 to pick up her brother from the airport that weekend, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.840 but she never showed up. It left her family wondering 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.160 where's Bethany. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.200 She didn't want to disappear. I think everybody was on edge. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.800 The Talkatina community really responded to it, and the people 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.319 here at Anchorage got involved in it too, particularly the 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.160 students out of the university. We had a lot of 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.440 students in the university that were distributing flyers and posting 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:43.560 them all over the campus. 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.120 Flyers with Bethany's smiling face next to the ominous word 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.640 missing went up all over town. It was a scary 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.200 time for Bethany's parents, who struggled to stay positive. 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.440 I think a lot of times families blamed themselves, and 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.120 in this situation, the family was doing it. They raised 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.319 a wonderful daughter, they were sending her off to college 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.240 like so many other families do. They were trying to 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.080 do what was right for their daughter, and she ends 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:14.600 up missing. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.640 It was early May and Bethany was about to begin 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.319 summer school. That's also when tourism season was about to begin, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.280 which meant the snow was melting and the ground was thawing. 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.880 That turned Anchorage into a muddy mess for Bethany's search party, and. 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.719 They were going all around the town, putting up posters 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.520 and looking in places trying to find her, and it's 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:40.440 very hard work. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.880 Detectives began tracing Bethany's last known whereabouts and got some 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.440 help from her cell phone, which was found inside her apartment. 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.960 It was two thousand and three, but even then, no 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.719 twenty one year old would leave her house without their 0:12:55.760 --> 0:13:01.480 cell phone, which concerned everyone involved. At the time, Bethany 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.920 owned a flip phone. A scroll through her phone long 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.560 showed several calls from that Saturday morning. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.760 I believe she talked to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.239 a pilot and they had a conversation. 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.560 Just before nine am that Saturday morning, Bethany had a 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.720 short phone call with her boyfriend Joe, and. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.360 I made a suspicious right from the beginning. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.199 Joe lived in No Malaska, which is famous for being 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:29.200 the endpoint of the Iditarod Dog Race, and the only 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.800 way to get between Anchorage and Nome was by plane. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.280 Good thing Joe was a pilot at the time. Bethany 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.960 was twenty one years old, Joe was well into his thirties. 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.200 The two used to work together and had been dating 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:49.240 for about six months. One important thing to note, Joe 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:50.280 was married. 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.520 That made us even more suspicious when we found that out. 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.160 Bethany's parents told investigators they didn't know much about Joe, 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.400 so detectives question Joe, who explained that his marriage was 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.840 long over by the time he met Bethany. He said 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:08.320 the reason his divorce had dragged out for so long 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.719 was because he and his soon to be x were 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.400 trying to do what was best for their child. Joe 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.880 had been with Bethany before she disappeared. He was helping 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.960 her move into her new apartment. He said the two 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.680 had a nice visit. He even gave her a Puka 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.680 Shehell necklace from Hawaii as a gift. But Joe said 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.560 he flew back to Nome on Friday morning because he 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:37.080 had to work. Then things got uncomfortable. The detectives asked 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.560 about joe soon to be ex wife. Did she know 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.880 about Bethany. Joe said she did, and the two didn't 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.720 exactly have a happy meeting. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.040 That immediately drew some concern from the mother and immediately 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:52.640 from the detectives that responded to it. 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.520 Just a few weeks earlier, Joe's wife found Bethany at 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.560 his apartment in Nome and was furious, even threw a 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:05.520 glass at her, and later called Bethany's parents and told 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.560 them their daughter was a home wrecker. 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.560 I'm a parent too, I have three kids and about 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:15.480 the same age as she was, and so I just 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:16.400 felt for the parents. 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.360 Detectives checked Joe's alibi and confirmed he was flying that 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.640 entire weekend. As for the pilot soon to be ex wife, 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.720 there are no roads between Noman Anchorage. If she were 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.080 to come to Anchorage, she'd have to fly in, and 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.880 there was no record of that happening. They cleared both 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.640 the pilot and his wife and again left everyone asking 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:41.600 where is Bethany. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:44.560 There are a lot of people that disappear for a 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.240 lot of different reasons, and so they wanted to know 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.800 what happened to this young lady. 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.120 Do their conversation with Joe, detectives got a clear picture 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.280 of what was happening in Bethany's life. Joe said Bethany 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.360 had taken a new job cleaning and showing apartments for 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.440 her landlord, a man named Mike Lawson, and that Saturday, 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.640 Bethany planned to meet with Mike so he could train her. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.000 The detective he questioned Mike immediately. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.960 Mike Lawson said, yes, he and Bethany spoke early that 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.160 Saturday morning, but it was to resolve an issue with 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.080 Bethany's keys. But Mike said he never met up with 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.280 Bethany that Saturday. In fact, he said he's the one 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.160 who shows the apartments to prospective tenants, so he wasn't 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.520 sure what Bethany was talking about. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.480 Mike Lawson said that he was at home with his 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.680 brother all day watching NASCAR. 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.760 After hitting several dead ends, investigators shifted their focus to 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.200 the Dupleaux next door to Bethany's apartment. 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:52.000 There was a fire in the apartment, and in this case, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:53.760 there was something to that fire. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.840 Early that Sunday morning, a newspaper delivery person noticed the 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.120 fire and called nine one one. Originally ruled an accident, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.720 investigators later discovered it was no accident at all. 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:09.040 Well, the apartment was set on fire. 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:13.720 When we went to go look at the fire afterwards, 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.119 we found some evidence. 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.800 Won't Want again was the chief of police for the 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:20.840 Anchorage PD, and. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:25.680 The fire basically was meant to destroy whatever evidence might. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:30.880 Be inside Inside the apartment, the detectives noticed a suspicious 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.840 patch of drywall, almost like the job was rushed to 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.560 get done just before the fire. 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.800 The material that they used to you know, that coulking 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:47.640 kind of drywall stuff, wasn't completely dry and actually kind 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.359 of depressed because of the heat the moisture there. It 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:55.320 actually shrank back and made us look at it. And 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.960 as we examined that repair, we found some hair inside. 0:17:59.920 --> 0:18:05.400 It was almost incredible that investigators located those hairs and 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:10.120 fibers within the poorly patched drywall. They were sent off 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.800 to the lab for testing, and while they waited for answers, 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.800 they were left to wonder whose hair was in the 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.560 wall and how did it get there because the apartment 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:28.679 it was found in was vacant. Franco Beznis was a 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:30.520 contractor who worked on that building. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.280 Mike Lawson and I worked for a construction company and 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.480 the guy calls me up and he says, hey, Franco, 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.960 the building caught on fire. The duplex, the one that 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.120 I was in the work. It's a two story burnt 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.480 through the first floor. The flames went up and even 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:47.719 the ceiling was burnt, but it didn't actually break the 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.160 shell of the whole building, and it was ruled as 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.639 electrical fire, which really obsessed me because I'm the one 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.199 that does the work and I don't want to be 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.000 blamed for, you know, touching two wires together. But after 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.840 examining the fire, I knew that it wasn't me. ATF 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.879 came in and ruled it as arson. When that changed everything, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.920 that drew attention to the whole disappearance next door. 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.399 That's when the police started looking at everyone who had 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:17.760 been working on the apartment. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.800 The lead investigator starts telling us about Bethany Krarraz missing, 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:25.840 and they knew the connection that we had already, that 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.520 our company is the same company that rent it tour, 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:30.400 so they're questioning. 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:30.840 All of us. 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.080 Little I realized that they ran it background track and 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.040 literally everybody right there on the spot. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.560 And wait until you hear what they found. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.359 Out of the seven guys that I worked with, five 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.400 of them come back as rester sex offenders, which blew 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:47.879 me away. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.119 Okay, so there are five registered sex offenders working on 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.160 an apartment building where a twenty one year old girl 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.000 went missing and the neighboring building was set on fire. 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.359 There's one gal that just ended the apartment there who's alone. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:08.080 So that really drew a lot of attention to our 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.400 company for investigators. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.360 The hope was that one of these five registered sex 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.000 offenders might lead them to Bethany, and with any luck, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.280 they'd find Bethany alive. 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.760 I believe that somebody knows something. 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.320 As the Anchorage PD pieced together a timeline of Bethany 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:37.000 Carrera's disappearance, they were focused not only on her apartment, 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.680 but the building next door. Right around the same time 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:47.520 Bethany disappeared that Saturday, her next door apartment caught on fire. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.920 The timing of the fire was back to back. 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:56.000 Francobznai's was a contractor who worked with Bethany's landlord. 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.879 Saturday night. The fire broke out same Bill and I 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.840 had all the work at so Initially it was ruled 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.879 electrical fire. Then after more investigation, it was ruled as arson. 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:09.320 That changed everything. 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.920 Detectives got even more suspicious when they did a background 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:14.640 check on a construction crew. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.600 Five out of the seven were roster sex offenders. I'm 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:20.720 sitting there going what am I working with? 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:26.320 The police looked into all of their alibis, including Bethany's landlord, 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.240 Mike Lawson. At the time, Mike Lawson was forty five 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.720 years old. He was tall, and husky with jet black hair. 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.280 He slipped back and yes, Mike did have some well 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:40.320 documented problems with women. 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.840 The lead investigator actually asked him right in front of me, 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.000 is it okay if I do a visual search on 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:51.320 your vehicle? Mike said yes. So they walked over to 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.439 Mike's vehicle. Mike opened every door, including the hatchback to 0:21:55.560 --> 0:22:00.680 his SUV Mercedes. They walked around, did a bit look, 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.560 and then they drove off. I go back to work. 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.280 An hour and a half goes by and I look 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:11.520 back over there. Mike never left. All he's doing is 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.159 walking in circles around his car, looking sort of like 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:16.560 what the investigators did. 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.400 Can you imagine seeing one of your coworkers doing that. 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:26.200 So yeah, Franco found it a little suspicious, And then 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.200 things got even more strange. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:30.679 He walked up to me and said, Franco, can you 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.560 cover for me? And I'm like, yeah, I'll cover for you. 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:36.280 He said that he needs to go get an attorney. 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:38.480 I looked at Mike and I said, Mike, we don't 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.440 all need attorneys. I know for fact that I didn't 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:43.760 do anything, and I don't think any of these guys did, 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.480 But why worry about it Mike, and he said, well, 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:47.399 they're looking at me. 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:50.960 The next day, Mike showed up to work with his 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.440 car completely cleaned and detailed. 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.399 This car is the cleanest I've ever seen it. But 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.560 you got to understand about Mike this car. I've known 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.280 him for several months. One time I could ever get 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:04.600 in the car. 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:05.000 It was so. 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:09.520 Dirty, papers and boxes. There was never no room except 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:10.160 for just him. 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:13.440 And look, this could be one giant coincidence that Mike 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.720 had his car cleaned a day after the police searched it. 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.960