WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Clea Hall 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:14.245 School of Humans. Back in twenty nineteen, I got a 0:00:14.285 --> 0:00:18.805 Facebook message from Laurel Hall, whose daughter Kleashnder Hall disappeared 0:00:18.845 --> 0:00:21.485 in nineteen ninety four when she was just eighteen years old. 0:00:22.165 --> 0:00:26.085 It read, quote, Hi, Catherine, my daughter disappeared from her 0:00:26.125 --> 0:00:28.965 after school job on May night, nineteen ninety four without 0:00:28.965 --> 0:00:32.125 a trace. One of my Facebook friends listens to your 0:00:32.125 --> 0:00:36.005 podcasts and thought you could help me. Will you? Thanks? 0:00:36.165 --> 0:00:42.165 Laurel end quote. In nineteen ninety four, Kleshender Hall, known 0:00:42.205 --> 0:00:46.365 to everyone as Clea, was living in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Actually, 0:00:46.445 --> 0:00:49.045 Clia grew up very near where I grew up. We 0:00:49.125 --> 0:00:52.045 lived just a couple of miles from each other. Clia 0:00:52.205 --> 0:00:55.085 was a senior at Watson Chapel High School. She had 0:00:55.085 --> 0:00:58.885 big dreams and she was making them happen. May of 0:00:59.005 --> 0:01:01.885 nineteen ninety four was a super busy month for Clea. 0:01:02.485 --> 0:01:04.725 She was getting ready for a big speech at graduation. 0:01:05.205 --> 0:01:10.285 She was valedictorian of her class. After graduation, Clia was 0:01:10.365 --> 0:01:13.525 leaving town. She was supposed to start a summer internship 0:01:13.525 --> 0:01:15.765 that she had all lined up at a doctor's office 0:01:15.805 --> 0:01:18.805 in Boston, and then in the fall she would start 0:01:18.805 --> 0:01:22.045 college at Tennessee State University, where she had been accepted 0:01:22.085 --> 0:01:25.765 to the pre med program. Clia dreamed of a career 0:01:25.765 --> 0:01:29.685 in medicine. She wanted to be a pediatrician. But on 0:01:29.765 --> 0:01:32.685 May ninth, just a few weeks before leaving town to 0:01:32.725 --> 0:01:35.165 start her new life, the one she had worked so 0:01:35.325 --> 0:01:41.285 hard for, Clia Hall disappeared without a trace. Over the 0:01:41.285 --> 0:01:45.285 past five years making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, 0:01:45.365 --> 0:01:47.765 I've learned that there is no such thing as a 0:01:47.805 --> 0:01:52.285 small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds 0:01:52.325 --> 0:01:55.365 of messages from people all around the country asking for 0:01:55.445 --> 0:01:58.685 help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, 0:01:58.965 --> 0:02:02.485 and their communities. And now they have a new way 0:02:02.525 --> 0:02:07.205 to reach out. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone 0:02:07.485 --> 0:02:10.885 Murder Line. If you have a case you'd like me 0:02:11.005 --> 0:02:13.485 and my team to look into, you can reach out 0:02:13.525 --> 0:02:17.125 to us at six seven eight seven four four six 0:02:17.285 --> 0:02:21.125 one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four 0:02:21.605 --> 0:03:12.325 six one four five. Kleschendra Denise Hall was born on 0:03:12.405 --> 0:03:16.805 March thirtieth, nineteen seventy six, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her dad, 0:03:16.845 --> 0:03:20.445 Willie and her mom, Laurel Hall, had four children. They 0:03:20.445 --> 0:03:24.805 had three sons and Clia with their only daughter. They 0:03:24.845 --> 0:03:28.725 were a very close family and Clia was a serious student. 0:03:29.485 --> 0:03:31.845 And although she went out just like all teens do 0:03:31.965 --> 0:03:36.445 and enjoyed social activities, she was extremely responsible. She even 0:03:36.485 --> 0:03:39.205 had an after school job to help pay for college. 0:03:39.325 --> 0:03:43.085 She worked for doctor Larry Amos, PhD. And not a 0:03:43.125 --> 0:03:46.205 medical doctor. What he did was that he ran a 0:03:46.245 --> 0:03:49.085 nonprofit organization out of his home office at fifty three 0:03:49.085 --> 0:03:52.045 oh nine Fawcett Road, just a few blocks from Clia's house. 0:03:53.285 --> 0:03:56.045 Larry owned two houses that were right next to each other. 0:03:56.485 --> 0:03:58.885 Over the years, he did a lot of construction work 0:03:58.885 --> 0:04:02.165 on that property. The house where Clia worked was a 0:04:02.165 --> 0:04:05.165 big English tutor home and had a separate area that 0:04:05.205 --> 0:04:09.205 was a home office with its own dedicated landline. Clia's 0:04:09.245 --> 0:04:12.445 job was to help with bookkeeping. She got Larry to 0:04:12.525 --> 0:04:17.125 sign checks and help keep things organized. Now, it's been 0:04:17.325 --> 0:04:21.845 reported that Larry wrote grants where he would allocate resources 0:04:21.845 --> 0:04:25.685 for childcare facilities, But I've discovered that, like in so 0:04:25.805 --> 0:04:29.205 many cold cases, there are a lot of basic facts 0:04:29.245 --> 0:04:31.445 about this case, even though it has been reported on 0:04:31.685 --> 0:04:34.245 many times over the years, that are just flat out wrong. 0:04:34.925 --> 0:04:38.245 Because the truth was that Larry Amos was involved in 0:04:38.285 --> 0:04:41.525 some very shady financial dealings, which we will come back to, 0:04:42.565 --> 0:04:45.205 but first let's go back to Clia and that day 0:04:45.205 --> 0:04:49.005 in nineteen ninety four. I don't really like phrases like 0:04:49.165 --> 0:04:52.685 troubled team, because to me, everyone deserves justice and to 0:04:52.685 --> 0:04:56.485 have their case investigated. But just for clarity, because we 0:04:56.565 --> 0:05:00.245 are looking at someone's pattern of life. Clia came from 0:05:00.285 --> 0:05:04.165 a loving home. She had no issues with mental health. 0:05:04.485 --> 0:05:07.485 She had a steady job. She was very organized. She 0:05:07.565 --> 0:05:10.725 was planning for her future. She had no disputes with 0:05:10.805 --> 0:05:14.885 her parents or anyone else, and she was not known 0:05:14.965 --> 0:05:18.925 to party or to disappear for days. Clia's schedule had 0:05:18.965 --> 0:05:21.685 been set for several weeks. She had just gone to 0:05:21.725 --> 0:05:24.205 her senior prom. Then on Saturday night, she went to 0:05:24.285 --> 0:05:28.045 a sorority ball. Sunday was Mother's Day, which Clia celebrated 0:05:28.045 --> 0:05:32.165 with her family. On Monday, May night, nineteen ninety four, 0:05:32.405 --> 0:05:35.645 Clia woke up, had breakfast with her brothers and her mom, Laurel, 0:05:36.165 --> 0:05:39.285 and then went to school. Laurel picked her up at 0:05:39.325 --> 0:05:43.005 around two thirty that afternoon. Clea was allowed to leave 0:05:43.045 --> 0:05:45.485 school a little early because of her after school job. 0:05:46.205 --> 0:05:49.005 They went straight to Larry's house, but there was no 0:05:49.045 --> 0:05:55.325 one home. Later, Larry's wife, Patricia, apologized to Laurel for this. Apparently, Patricia, 0:05:55.405 --> 0:05:57.565 Larry's wife, had a job. She worked for the school, 0:05:58.125 --> 0:06:00.725 and when Clia arrived for work that day, she hadn't 0:06:00.725 --> 0:06:04.885 gotten home yet. After realizing no one was home, Laurel 0:06:05.005 --> 0:06:08.325 and Clea drove back to their house. Cla was tired, 0:06:08.405 --> 0:06:11.125 so she kind of crashed out on the couch they 0:06:11.165 --> 0:06:15.125 waited to hear from Larry Amos or his wife. Laurel 0:06:15.325 --> 0:06:18.485 said that Larry called their house at four forty five pm. 0:06:18.805 --> 0:06:20.445 He said he was home and he was ready for 0:06:20.485 --> 0:06:24.045 Clea to come into work. So Clia basically jumped up 0:06:24.085 --> 0:06:27.085 off the couch and got into the car and Laurel 0:06:27.165 --> 0:06:30.805 drove her back to Larry Amos's house. Laurel watched as 0:06:30.845 --> 0:06:33.325 Clia walked up to that house. She was wearing a 0:06:33.365 --> 0:06:36.805 blue and white Polkadot printed shirt and short set white 0:06:36.845 --> 0:06:40.165 tennis shoes and white socks. Clea had short hair, but 0:06:40.245 --> 0:06:42.685 she had gotten hair extensions for the prom, so she 0:06:42.725 --> 0:06:44.965 had her hair up in a ponytail with a pink ribbon. 0:06:46.365 --> 0:06:50.005 Laurel watched her daughter walk across the lawn and into 0:06:50.085 --> 0:06:53.205 that house. That was the last time she ever saw 0:06:53.245 --> 0:06:57.445 Clia alive. Of course, as we know with all these cases, 0:06:57.485 --> 0:07:01.005 everything becomes much more clear only in hindsight, and that's 0:07:01.005 --> 0:07:05.205 when these tiny details become so crucial. Laurel, when she 0:07:05.325 --> 0:07:09.205 was recalling what happened that afternoon, told reporters that Cleia 0:07:09.285 --> 0:07:11.325 had been a little bit dazed after she got the 0:07:11.365 --> 0:07:14.045 call from Larry Amos because she was asleep on the couch. 0:07:14.925 --> 0:07:17.285 They jumped straight into the car and drove over to 0:07:17.285 --> 0:07:20.285 the Amos house. And because of that, because they were 0:07:20.405 --> 0:07:23.645 kind of rushed, Clia forgot to grab her purse, which 0:07:23.685 --> 0:07:26.525 had her ID in it. So Cleah went to work 0:07:26.565 --> 0:07:29.685 that day with no purse and no ID. Now normally 0:07:29.765 --> 0:07:31.445 this would not have been a big deal since she 0:07:31.525 --> 0:07:33.725 was only supposed to be gone for a couple of hours, 0:07:34.165 --> 0:07:38.125 but later this would become very significant. Just to clarify, 0:07:38.285 --> 0:07:40.965 Clia did have a driver's license, but she didn't have 0:07:41.005 --> 0:07:43.725 her own car. And remember this was the pre cell 0:07:43.765 --> 0:07:46.685 phone era. There were cell phones out there. We had 0:07:46.685 --> 0:07:49.045 gone from the big brick cell phones you see in 0:07:49.045 --> 0:07:52.205 eighties movies to the plastic flip phones. But they were 0:07:52.245 --> 0:07:55.125 super expensive, and back then teens did not really have 0:07:55.165 --> 0:07:58.605 cell phones, so Clia and her mom had a routine. 0:07:58.965 --> 0:08:02.085 Clea would always call her mother from Larry Amos's landline 0:08:02.085 --> 0:08:03.645 when she was ready to be picked up from work. 0:08:04.285 --> 0:08:08.325 They did this every day. Normally, Clea would finish work 0:08:08.365 --> 0:08:11.125 at around eight thirty. Clia would look out the window 0:08:11.205 --> 0:08:14.125 and wait for her mom. Laurel would pull the car up, 0:08:14.205 --> 0:08:16.565 but generally would not honk the horn because she didn't 0:08:16.565 --> 0:08:18.925 want to wake people up. So then to get out 0:08:18.925 --> 0:08:21.805 of the garage, Clia would push the button. The automatic 0:08:21.845 --> 0:08:24.005 door would open, and then Clia would push it again. 0:08:24.325 --> 0:08:26.925 She knew exactly how to duck under that closing garage 0:08:26.925 --> 0:08:30.765 door without causing it to open back up. That night, 0:08:31.205 --> 0:08:33.645 the phone rang at the Hall house at eight pm. 0:08:34.045 --> 0:08:36.805 Laurel picked up the phone and it was Clea. Clia's 0:08:36.845 --> 0:08:40.365 brother also picked up the phone in the other room. 0:08:40.885 --> 0:08:43.085 Clia asked if anyone had called for her at home. 0:08:43.165 --> 0:08:46.045 Laurel said no, there were no messages. Clia said she 0:08:46.165 --> 0:08:48.725 wasn't quite finished at work, but she would be done soon. 0:08:48.845 --> 0:08:51.165 She said she would call back in around thirty minutes 0:08:51.205 --> 0:08:54.445 to get picked up. Laurel was reading on the couch. 0:08:54.925 --> 0:08:57.205 She drifted off to sleep with her book resting on 0:08:57.245 --> 0:09:00.565 her chest. Laurel was right next to the phone, but 0:09:00.645 --> 0:09:05.125 that phone never rang. Later police confirmed that because Clia's 0:09:05.125 --> 0:09:07.885 brothers were home too, no one heard the phone ring, 0:09:08.245 --> 0:09:11.045 so it's not like Laurella just slept through it. There 0:09:11.045 --> 0:09:14.725 were no other calls that night. Just before one am, 0:09:14.845 --> 0:09:17.645 Clia's dad, Willie, came into the house. He found his 0:09:17.685 --> 0:09:20.245 wife on the sofa and he woke her up. He 0:09:20.285 --> 0:09:24.085 asked where Clia was, and that's when Laurel realized she'd 0:09:24.085 --> 0:09:28.045 never gotten that call from Clia, she would later tell reporters. 0:09:28.085 --> 0:09:32.405 Immediately she felt sick. Laurel called Larry Amos's house and 0:09:32.445 --> 0:09:35.125 he picked up on the first ring. She told him 0:09:35.165 --> 0:09:37.605 Clelia hadn't come home that night and asked what time 0:09:37.685 --> 0:09:41.445 she left. Larry told Laurel he thought Clia left the 0:09:41.485 --> 0:09:43.765 house at around eight thirty, just like she normally did. 0:09:44.485 --> 0:09:47.125 He told her, hang on, I'll go check the time sheet. 0:09:47.925 --> 0:09:50.325 Then he said he had checked it and confirmed that yes, 0:09:50.445 --> 0:09:53.645 Clia had signed out at eight thirty. He said that 0:09:53.725 --> 0:09:56.805 he assumed Clia had gotten into a car, but that 0:09:56.885 --> 0:10:00.685 he had not actually seen Clia leave the house. Larry 0:10:00.765 --> 0:10:02.885 said he heard the garage door open and close and 0:10:02.965 --> 0:10:06.165 just assumed that Clia left as usual, Lolarel had picked 0:10:06.205 --> 0:10:10.165 her up. Larry told Laurel that Clia didn't tell him 0:10:10.285 --> 0:10:12.045 or his wife that she was leaving that night, which 0:10:12.045 --> 0:10:16.125 he did say was unlike her. Laurel Hall did not 0:10:16.245 --> 0:10:19.605 sleep that night. One part of her brain was probably 0:10:19.645 --> 0:10:22.365 trying to tell herself. Maybe Clia did meet a friend, 0:10:22.685 --> 0:10:24.525 maybe she made a plan and didn't want to tell 0:10:24.525 --> 0:10:27.605 her mom about it. But in her heart, she knew 0:10:27.685 --> 0:10:31.525 something was very wrong, and because Clia was eighteen years 0:10:31.565 --> 0:10:34.925 old back then, police told her she had to wait 0:10:34.925 --> 0:10:39.165 twenty four hours to report her daughter missing. The next morning, 0:10:39.285 --> 0:10:41.605 Laurel told Clia's little brother to look for her at 0:10:41.605 --> 0:10:45.125 the high school they had band together, and her brother 0:10:45.165 --> 0:10:47.845 didn't see her there, but he told his mom later 0:10:47.925 --> 0:10:49.925 that the seniors had gone to the elementary school that 0:10:50.005 --> 0:10:52.565 day for some kind of school trip, so he held 0:10:52.565 --> 0:10:57.165 out hope that maybe she was there. But by that afternoon, 0:10:57.685 --> 0:10:59.925 Clia's brother realized she was not in school, and he 0:11:00.005 --> 0:11:02.325 called his mother and told her she had never shown up. 0:11:03.805 --> 0:11:08.125 At that point, Laurel knew something bad had happened again. 0:11:08.205 --> 0:11:11.565 This was totally out of character for Clia. She and 0:11:11.605 --> 0:11:14.645 her husband Willie reported Clia missing that afternoon at the 0:11:14.685 --> 0:11:19.645 Pine Bluff Police Department. As we have seen in so 0:11:19.845 --> 0:11:22.965 many of these cases, at first, it seemed like the 0:11:23.005 --> 0:11:27.325 police were just not taking Clea's disappearance very seriously. According 0:11:27.365 --> 0:11:30.405 to the Hall family, the police seemed to treat Clea 0:11:30.445 --> 0:11:34.325 as a runaway. In fact, Laurel later told reporters that 0:11:34.485 --> 0:11:37.845 police suggested Clia could have run away, possibly due to 0:11:37.845 --> 0:11:40.765 her hiding a secret from her parents. Maybe even they 0:11:40.805 --> 0:11:44.605 suggested the fact that Clia was pregnant. Laurel told police 0:11:44.605 --> 0:11:47.965 bluntly that Clea was on birth control. She actually was 0:11:48.005 --> 0:11:51.805 on an implanable contraceptive that was in her arm, and 0:11:51.925 --> 0:11:55.645 this kind of birth control has a very low failure rate. Plus, 0:11:55.805 --> 0:11:58.405 Cleia didn't have a boyfriend, and even if she was dating, 0:11:58.885 --> 0:12:01.485 Clea was a young woman who was looking to the future. 0:12:02.245 --> 0:12:04.605 This girl was not trying to get tied down in 0:12:04.645 --> 0:12:09.765 her hometown. Literally everything in her life suggested the opposite. 0:12:09.805 --> 0:12:13.285 She had everything to look forward to, graduation, her summer job, 0:12:13.365 --> 0:12:16.925 her full scholarship in Tennessee. Clea was happy. She was 0:12:16.965 --> 0:12:19.365 in a great mood in the days before her disappearance. 0:12:19.845 --> 0:12:22.845 If we're looking at victimology, there was literally nothing in 0:12:22.885 --> 0:12:25.365 her background or her profile that would suggest that she 0:12:25.405 --> 0:12:28.525 would run away for any reason. And finally, there were 0:12:28.565 --> 0:12:33.365 the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Let's say that she was 0:12:33.565 --> 0:12:36.765 inexplicably going to run away from home. Why would she 0:12:36.925 --> 0:12:39.725 choose that day? Why would she leave the one day 0:12:39.845 --> 0:12:42.085 she forgot her purse that had her money and her 0:12:42.125 --> 0:12:46.565 ID in it. Detectives looked through Clea's diary. They saw 0:12:46.725 --> 0:12:50.525 nothing about boyfriends, or problems, or plans to leave town suddenly. 0:12:51.125 --> 0:12:53.365 In fact, the main thing Cleia had in that diary 0:12:53.445 --> 0:12:56.565 was her work schedule. It was filled out months in advance. 0:12:57.885 --> 0:13:01.165 They were finally understanding Clia was not the type of 0:13:01.165 --> 0:13:04.285 person to skip worker school, and they began to believe 0:13:04.845 --> 0:13:11.365 that there had been foul play. Even early on in 0:13:11.405 --> 0:13:15.325 the investigation, Laurel and Willie started to feel suspicious about 0:13:15.405 --> 0:13:19.245 Clia's boss, Larry Amos. First of all, it struck Laurel 0:13:19.325 --> 0:13:23.045 as odd that on that first night when Clea was missing, 0:13:23.125 --> 0:13:26.205 when Laurel called the Amos house, she thought it was 0:13:26.285 --> 0:13:29.685 weird that Larry Amos answered on the first ring. Now, 0:13:29.725 --> 0:13:32.285 he later told her that he was up in the 0:13:32.285 --> 0:13:37.405 next room watching TV. But if that was true, Number one, 0:13:37.565 --> 0:13:39.845 why would he be up that late? And number two, 0:13:39.885 --> 0:13:42.045 why would he immediately pick up the phone on the 0:13:42.045 --> 0:13:44.045 work line? Why would he be sitting right next to 0:13:44.085 --> 0:13:47.085 the phone like that? And later she started to pick 0:13:47.165 --> 0:13:50.605 up what she believed were discrepancies in Larry Amos's description 0:13:51.125 --> 0:13:54.245 of what happened when Clea left the house. She thought 0:13:54.245 --> 0:13:56.445 it was a little off the fact that Larry said 0:13:56.445 --> 0:13:59.285 that he hadn't seen Clea leave, because she said Larry 0:13:59.325 --> 0:14:02.765 Amos always knew exactly who was coming and going at 0:14:02.765 --> 0:14:06.325 that property. Larry Amos was the last person to see 0:14:06.365 --> 0:14:10.285 Cleo live, but he wasn't being super cooperative with police. 0:14:11.125 --> 0:14:13.165 Police asked Larry if they could drop by so they 0:14:13.165 --> 0:14:15.445 could get a statement, but he said he was going 0:14:15.485 --> 0:14:17.845 out of town on a business trip to Dallas. He 0:14:17.845 --> 0:14:20.285 said he would be gone for three days so police 0:14:20.325 --> 0:14:22.445 would have to take his statement when he got back 0:14:22.445 --> 0:14:25.165 in town. He emphasized that he wanted to be there 0:14:25.165 --> 0:14:29.005 in person when police came to his house. Larry claimed 0:14:29.045 --> 0:14:31.645 he was buying tanning beds for a business idea he had, 0:14:32.365 --> 0:14:35.205 but it was later reported that he never bought those 0:14:35.245 --> 0:14:38.005 beds and he never opened any kind of tanning bed business, 0:14:39.005 --> 0:14:40.965 so a lot of people wondered did he have a 0:14:40.965 --> 0:14:45.085 different reason for going to Texas Police asked Larry Amos 0:14:45.125 --> 0:14:48.365 to take a lot of detector test, Laurel said, Larry 0:14:48.405 --> 0:14:51.245 claimed he was busy, and then later said police would 0:14:51.245 --> 0:14:53.165 have to talk to his attorneys if they wanted him 0:14:53.205 --> 0:14:55.645 to take a lot of detector test. By the way, 0:14:55.965 --> 0:14:59.645 I completely get this after what I've experienced with cases 0:14:59.725 --> 0:15:03.085 in Arkansas and elsewhere. I know that light detectors are 0:15:03.405 --> 0:15:06.965 completely dependent on the skill of the person giving the examination, 0:15:07.445 --> 0:15:11.165 And to be honest, I've seen several cases where people 0:15:11.205 --> 0:15:13.885 have taken light detector tests and the results have come 0:15:13.925 --> 0:15:17.565 back inconclusive or that they failed it, and later that 0:15:17.645 --> 0:15:20.685 person was proven to be completely innocent. So I get 0:15:20.765 --> 0:15:24.005 Larry Amos's reluctance to take a light detector test. What 0:15:24.125 --> 0:15:27.965 I don't get is that Larry Amos seemed totally unconcerned 0:15:28.085 --> 0:15:30.565 about Clia being missing and about being one of the 0:15:30.645 --> 0:15:33.725 last people to see her, and there were some other 0:15:34.005 --> 0:15:36.765 odd things that were happening that Larel said did not 0:15:36.885 --> 0:15:40.245 seem to add up. For example, before Larry Amos left town, 0:15:40.365 --> 0:15:44.045 police did very briefly stop by his house, and when 0:15:44.085 --> 0:15:47.405 they did, apparently detectives went into that home office. They 0:15:47.445 --> 0:15:50.765 picked up the phone and hit redial on the phone. 0:15:50.925 --> 0:15:53.405 They wrote down the last number dialed on a scrap 0:15:53.445 --> 0:15:57.965 of paper and said it was someone named Smith. The 0:15:58.005 --> 0:16:00.525 police asked Larry Amos about that phone number if he 0:16:00.605 --> 0:16:03.325 recognized it, because they were thinking maybe Clia had made 0:16:03.365 --> 0:16:06.245 a call from that home office landline and that might 0:16:06.285 --> 0:16:09.685 help explain who saw her last. Larry said he had 0:16:09.685 --> 0:16:12.605 no idea who that person was, but later it turned 0:16:12.645 --> 0:16:15.765 out that Smith this phone number was the phone number 0:16:15.765 --> 0:16:20.245 for Larry Amos's kids babysitter. So then Laurel started wondering 0:16:20.525 --> 0:16:22.845 why would he claim not to know the phone number 0:16:22.885 --> 0:16:26.005 of someone that he and or his wife presumably called often. 0:16:26.645 --> 0:16:30.085 And also, if the babysitter was the last person called 0:16:30.525 --> 0:16:32.845 and he was sitting up late in that office, why 0:16:32.845 --> 0:16:35.005 would Larry or anyone else need to call up a 0:16:35.005 --> 0:16:39.685 babysitter after midnight. Laurel and Willie did not wait for 0:16:39.725 --> 0:16:43.085 the detectives to start searching for their daughter. They called 0:16:43.125 --> 0:16:46.445 Clia's friends and posted flowers everywhere around town, which they 0:16:46.525 --> 0:16:50.005 printed up themselves. Across the street from the Amos house, 0:16:50.045 --> 0:16:53.445 there are some woods. The volunteers searched there and also 0:16:53.685 --> 0:16:56.325 in the wooded area behind the house, and they did 0:16:56.365 --> 0:16:58.485 what police should have done in the first place. They 0:16:58.605 --> 0:17:03.405 knocked on doors and pounded pavement. Finally, several days after 0:17:03.485 --> 0:17:08.605 Clia went missing, detectives started so too very quickly. It 0:17:08.605 --> 0:17:11.285 seemed like there were a few possibilities being talked about here. 0:17:12.205 --> 0:17:15.045 The first possibility was that Clia left with someone in 0:17:15.085 --> 0:17:19.965 a car. This seemed extremely unlikely because Cleah had a 0:17:19.965 --> 0:17:21.565 plan for her mom to pick her up, and she 0:17:21.645 --> 0:17:24.525 had a regular routine. This was a Monday night, it 0:17:24.565 --> 0:17:26.165 was a school night, and even if she was going 0:17:26.205 --> 0:17:28.685 to leave with someone else, she would have called her mom. 0:17:28.765 --> 0:17:31.565 She knew her mom would be waiting for her. Remember, 0:17:31.605 --> 0:17:33.565 Clia had already called her mom to tell her she 0:17:33.605 --> 0:17:35.765 would be done at work soon, so it would make 0:17:35.805 --> 0:17:37.925 no sense that she wouldn't call back and let her 0:17:37.965 --> 0:17:40.725 know that she was going to do something else. The 0:17:40.765 --> 0:17:44.365 second possibility was that Cleah walked home alone. In a 0:17:44.405 --> 0:17:47.485 documentary that later aired about the case on Oxygen, the 0:17:47.565 --> 0:17:50.805 journalist interviewed a friend of Clia's, another young woman who 0:17:50.885 --> 0:17:53.725 used to work for Larry Amos. The friend said that 0:17:53.805 --> 0:17:56.205 she was there the night when Clia went missing. She 0:17:56.365 --> 0:17:59.005 said she had offered Cla a ride home, and Clia said, no, 0:17:59.045 --> 0:18:02.165 don't worry about it, that she was going to walk home. Now, 0:18:02.205 --> 0:18:05.085 this was a strange piece of information. I would love 0:18:05.125 --> 0:18:08.165 to find this young woman, this second person who said 0:18:08.165 --> 0:18:11.725 that they were there that night, because Laurel claims that 0:18:11.765 --> 0:18:14.325 she later clarified this girl was not in the house 0:18:14.365 --> 0:18:16.845 that night, that in fact, that young woman had not 0:18:17.005 --> 0:18:19.605 been working in the office for several months by the 0:18:19.605 --> 0:18:22.605 time Cleo went missing, and she thinks that after this 0:18:22.685 --> 0:18:25.405 many years, the young woman just got confused in her memory. 0:18:25.725 --> 0:18:28.525 She thinks she was thinking about a different night. Laurel 0:18:28.725 --> 0:18:31.405 insists that the only people that she knows of who 0:18:31.405 --> 0:18:34.005 were in the house that night were doctor Larry Amos, 0:18:34.285 --> 0:18:38.365 his wife, and their small children. I just want to 0:18:38.405 --> 0:18:40.565 talk for a minute about the theory that Clea would 0:18:40.565 --> 0:18:43.605 have walked home alone. This would have been shortly after 0:18:43.645 --> 0:18:45.445 eight thirty at night, so it would have been dusk, 0:18:45.565 --> 0:18:48.285 not full dark, but getting dark. And I just want 0:18:48.285 --> 0:18:51.085 to explain a little about Pine Bluff. As someone who 0:18:51.125 --> 0:18:52.845 grew up there, I can tell you it has a 0:18:52.925 --> 0:18:55.245 history of violent crime and it continues to be a 0:18:55.325 --> 0:18:58.725 dangerous place to live. Back in the nineties, it's really 0:18:58.765 --> 0:19:01.725 not an exaggeration to say that parts of Pine Bluff 0:19:01.805 --> 0:19:04.605 and other parts of South Arkansas were like war zones. 0:19:05.085 --> 0:19:06.885 There was an even a series back in the nineties 0:19:06.925 --> 0:19:08.965 called Banging in Little Rock about the crips and the 0:19:08.965 --> 0:19:11.165 Bloods and other gangs that were active in Little Rock 0:19:11.165 --> 0:19:14.485 in South Arkansas. In the nineties, the population of Pine 0:19:14.485 --> 0:19:18.285 Bluff was around sixty thousand, but per capita, it regularly 0:19:18.405 --> 0:19:20.805 ranks in the five most dangerous small towns in the 0:19:20.925 --> 0:19:25.525 United States. Everyone knows, and everyone knew back then, you 0:19:25.605 --> 0:19:28.645 do not go out walking in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after dark, 0:19:29.485 --> 0:19:33.165 and Laurel was very protective of Clia. She insisted her 0:19:33.245 --> 0:19:36.165 daughter would never walk home alone. She said she had 0:19:36.165 --> 0:19:39.365 only walked home alone once from Larry Amos's house, and 0:19:40.205 --> 0:19:43.325 on that instance, Clia's brother walked home with her, So 0:19:43.445 --> 0:19:47.325 Clia randomly deciding to walk home alone near dark is 0:19:47.365 --> 0:19:51.845 a remote possibility at best. Later from Laurel's interviews, it's 0:19:51.925 --> 0:19:56.005 clear that Laurel becomes more suspicious of Larry Amos as 0:19:56.045 --> 0:20:01.125 a person. She talks about discussing Larry Amos with Clia 0:20:01.725 --> 0:20:06.485 and Clea would talk about Larry Amos's business. Laurel said 0:20:06.485 --> 0:20:08.925 Clia had made comments to her about the fact that 0:20:09.205 --> 0:20:11.685 when she would get Larry Amos to sign the checks, 0:20:12.085 --> 0:20:14.205 a lot of them did not seem to be related 0:20:14.285 --> 0:20:17.965 to the nonprofit, and Clia sort of remarked that was 0:20:18.005 --> 0:20:20.805 a little weird, maybe a little shady, And she would 0:20:20.845 --> 0:20:23.965 talk about how Larry Amos was cheap, but never said 0:20:24.005 --> 0:20:26.605 anything about him being dangerous or violent in any way. 0:20:28.005 --> 0:20:30.645 Laurel started to become more suspicious as time went on, 0:20:30.805 --> 0:20:33.885 because when Larry Amos did talk to police after he 0:20:33.925 --> 0:20:35.725 got back from his Texas trip and gave them a 0:20:35.725 --> 0:20:39.645 formal statement, she said certain details of the story he 0:20:39.725 --> 0:20:42.765 told started to change from what he told her originally. 0:20:43.765 --> 0:20:46.805 In his third statement, he said that when Clia left, 0:20:46.845 --> 0:20:49.325 she had a can of peach pop meaning peach soda 0:20:49.365 --> 0:20:52.205 in her hand that his wife had given her. He 0:20:52.245 --> 0:20:55.365 said he saw Clea looking out the garage window. Yet 0:20:55.405 --> 0:20:57.765 when he talked to Laurel that first time, Larry Amos 0:20:57.765 --> 0:21:00.485 said he was nowhere near the garage. He had said 0:21:00.565 --> 0:21:03.365 specifically that he'd just heard the door open and close. 0:21:03.925 --> 0:21:07.165 Now again, these details seemed to be tiny, but they 0:21:07.205 --> 0:21:12.245 could be hugely important. Two weeks after Clea disappeared, police 0:21:12.285 --> 0:21:15.245 finally went in to search the Amos house, and they 0:21:15.245 --> 0:21:17.925 made a major mistake here in my opinion, because they 0:21:17.965 --> 0:21:21.045 didn't get a search warrant. So when Larry Amos told 0:21:21.085 --> 0:21:23.205 them after a little while they had to stop the search, 0:21:23.685 --> 0:21:25.725 they had no legal right to stay there. They had 0:21:25.805 --> 0:21:29.605 to leave the house. So afterwards, when police said they 0:21:29.605 --> 0:21:33.365 found no signs of foul play, Laurel remained suspicious because 0:21:33.725 --> 0:21:36.485 it was obvious to her that even if something was 0:21:36.525 --> 0:21:39.205 in the house, the police didn't stay long enough to 0:21:39.205 --> 0:21:41.845 do a thorough enough search to find it. And also, 0:21:42.525 --> 0:21:44.605 Larry Amos had had a lot of time. He had 0:21:44.725 --> 0:21:46.925 a couple weeks at that point. He could have cleaned 0:21:46.965 --> 0:21:50.165 up anything with two whole weeks to do it. And 0:21:50.205 --> 0:21:55.285 then another bizarre thing started to happen. Several people, including 0:21:55.445 --> 0:22:00.965 Laurel's husband Willie, saw Larry Amos tearing down Clia's missing posters. 0:22:02.005 --> 0:22:04.405 Laurel and Willie did a little bit of their own 0:22:04.445 --> 0:22:07.485 detective work on Larry Ry Amos. They reached out to 0:22:07.525 --> 0:22:12.445 his ex wife, Christine, and this is a strange story. 0:22:12.765 --> 0:22:15.885 They arranged to meet up with Christine in person. They 0:22:16.005 --> 0:22:20.165 noticed that Christine seemed to be very nervous, and there 0:22:20.205 --> 0:22:22.365 was a man across the street who was taking pictures 0:22:22.365 --> 0:22:25.405 of them while they're talking to her. Now, Christine told 0:22:25.445 --> 0:22:28.205 Laurel and Willie she knew she seemed kind of paranoid, 0:22:28.245 --> 0:22:30.925 but she said she was afraid of Larry Amos. She 0:22:31.005 --> 0:22:33.645 said he'd been physically and emotionally abusive to her in 0:22:33.685 --> 0:22:35.525 the marriage. She said they were in the middle of 0:22:35.565 --> 0:22:37.845 an ugly court battle. She said she was suing him 0:22:37.885 --> 0:22:41.085 for child support. Things between them had gotten really bad, 0:22:41.805 --> 0:22:44.125 she said. When she left him, they got into a 0:22:44.165 --> 0:22:47.805 physical fight that ended when she threw boiling water over him. 0:22:49.245 --> 0:22:51.885 When Laurel and Willie reached out to her, Christine said 0:22:51.925 --> 0:22:54.685 she was actually worried this could have been orchestrated by Larry. 0:22:54.765 --> 0:22:56.565 He might have been planning to do something to her. 0:22:57.125 --> 0:23:00.245