WEBVTT - Chapter 1 | Criminal Mischief 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:05.160 This series includes sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including sexual 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:19.840 assault and abuse involving children. Listener discretion is advised. On 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.560 November twenty second, nineteen ninety five, one hundred named Peter 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.159 Erickson walked the woods of Carmel, New York, fifty or 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.440 so yards in from Fields Lane. He was out there 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.320 that morning with a buddy of his named Bruce. It 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.040 was the first day of a hunting season in Putnam County, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.520 and the two friends were setting up a tree stand 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:42.239 that morning. That's the perch that hunters hinda waiting for 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:42.760 a deer. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.280 My buddy was down below. He's free to heights, so 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.240 he was handing me stuff and I was up in 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.639 this tree and all of a sudden, I look out 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.760 in the road, and there's like twenty cop cars pull up, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.480 you know, all at once, and then they start walking 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.040 into the woods, and you're like, what is going on here? 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.559 The Cornelson County seat of Putnam, it's still a pretty 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.640 small town enough so that Peter knew some of the 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:13.639 cops who swarmed the woods that morning. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.600 I recognized a few of them, one of them pat 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.440 His name was Pacistaldo. 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.640 Pacstaldo, a detective for the Putnam County sheriff straight out 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.720 of a drugstore novel. He slipped his hair back in 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.560 a tight pompadour and wore a top coat even when 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.440 it was warm. Oh and he moonlighted on weekends as 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.759 an Elvis impersonator in several of the local dives. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.119 The guy kind of looked like Elvis a little bit, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.520 But that's why he was so memorable to me. It 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.880 wasn't my friend. I was like an acquaintance that we 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.520 knew from working there in the jail periodically doing electrical work. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.000 So as they were coming in, I say, I ain't 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.800 doing what's going on? And he goes, well, somebody found 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:01.160 something in the woods. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.600 Earlier that morning, another hunter had stumbled over something in 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.880 those woods. He went to check it out. It was 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:11.680 the skull of a preteen girl. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.040 He had found that skull, took it home, took it home. 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.639 Later that day, the hunter called the cops. And now, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.639 as costalgo told Peter and Bruce, he was out there 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.680 looking for her body. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.200 So we're like, no way. 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.920 You know, this is Putnam County back then, it was 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.640 a quieter town. You don't hear this stuff here. So 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.640 my friend Bruce and I said, do you mind if 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.119 we kind of look around and help you. So he goes, uh, yeah, 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:48.760 no problem. 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.400 Cops rarely let civilians walk their crime scene. According to Peter, though, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:55.640 that's what happened here. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.519 So I'm walking look and my buddy Bruce goes, hey, 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:04.320 come over here. 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.720 Castaldo and the other cops rushed over to Bruce. He 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.880 was crouched in the clearing between the trees, over a 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.040 mound of sticks and leaves that looked composed. He lifted 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.200 one of the branches and a chunk of the ground 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:23.000 cover came up. He saw something underneath it. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:29.960 It was her skeleton. There's a tremendous amount of debris 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.239 as well. I mean, you see the skeleton, but it's 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.680 not like this bright white thing that's sticking out in 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.880 the woods. There was a mandible the lower part of 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.880 the jaw and her moram was tied inde mandible was 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.320 sitting on the ground. There was hair there. You could 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.040 see there was hair there, dirty blonde like hair, just 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.080 laying there in the leaves. It was the ribbed cage. 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.600 It looked like it's kind of sickening. I mean, it 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:02.120 looked like the rib cage was mostly intact. This skeleton 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.640 was small too. It was It was a small skeleton. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:06.680 It was horrible. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.720 The body belonged to a twelve year old girl, a 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.120 girl going missing a full year prior. Her name was 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.559 Josette Right and it was Costaldo they put in charge 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:26.039 of finding her. The cops taped the site off and 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.160 gathered forensics. They were clothes draped over the body, including 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.359 the coach she was last seen wearing. It was badly 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.599 moldered with plant where its growing through it. Her broad 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.800 been tied around her head. Forensics pros would later say 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.320 that it had been used to gagger, along with her underwear, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.760 which had been stuffed in her mouth. Her hands were 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.719 bound in a complex odd tie. A sash cord ran 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.720 from her wrist to both her neck and ankle, yanking 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.320 her right foot back behind her and not fall from 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.840 her body. Cops found a hunting knife rested in the damp. 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.960 I'm Paul Salatarov, and for thirty three years I've written 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.920 for Rolling Stone magazine. I go after racist cops who 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.200 shoot and kill on her and black kids. I investigate 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.240 me on Nazi's bent on genocide in Virginia and social 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.000 media tech layds who look the other way, while the 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:32.160 cartel's poisoned children on their platforms. Now, when you write 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.760 those kinds of stories, one after another, you build a 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.520 layer of callous around your heart. But this story has 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:44.040 pierced the skin and will not give me peace. I 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.599 keep hearing the voices of girls who'd warned the cops 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.520 about a demon, a hundred of girls hiding in the woods. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.600 And I keep hearing the voice of that demon in 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.680 the woods, a voice that's still in my head five 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.880 years later. You'll soon meet him in this reason. In fact, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:13.640 he's lurking here in this episode. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:27.880 New My madness, laughter, my fears, sorrows, depths are endless 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:30.000 in this. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.960 Valley of the years. 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.920 I want to see your revelation. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.440 All want to know, Holy War. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.120 I'm reading out desperately. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.160 Shune to the one who's. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.560 Hold the stars, to the. 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.800 One who is holding. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:12.680 The stars. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:45.360 This is the Devil's quarry. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.560 I was in the group homing Caramel. I'd say we 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.280 were pretty tight with the crew that was there. You know, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.880 we all came from different backgrounds. We were all kind 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.960 of there for same reasons, but were different. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.960 Rachel was seven or eight when her mom's new boyfriend 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.040 crashed into their lives. Within weeks, he was abusing both 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.440 Rachel and her mom. It's why she landed in the 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.840 group home a few years later. That home was known 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.040 as Saint Cabrini, and it proved to be a blessing 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:21.760 for Rachel. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.840 When it came to Carmel, it was like kind of 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.320 not a clean slate for me. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.080 Cabrini was a haven for the yanked out girls of 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.360 Putnam County, the ones who had been abused by man 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.600 in their house were ignored by their drug distracted mother. 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.680 They ranged an age from eleven to eighteen, but looked 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.000 out for each other. Like sisters. Rachel and the others 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.520 loved to hang on the big stone porch out front, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.880 smoking menthols with the boys who stopped by. That porch 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.760 is where she first met Josett. Right. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.600 She was an average ten eleven year old. You know, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.080 she had long blonde hair. 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:05.680 Rachel is one of the first people the Putnam cop 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.679 spoke to after Josette's body was found. Rachel, by the way, 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.800 is a pseudonym. You'll see why she needs one soon enough. 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.600 As it happened, she was classmates with Josette's sister, who 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.320 was four years older. Than Josette. Their house was the 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:24.600 hang spot on weekday afternoons. 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:27.640 It was the house to go to. You know, it 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.840 was the party house. It was a place where kids 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.360 went to hang out to get drunk. There was people 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:35.520 there all the time. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.120 Well hanging at that house. She met Josette's mom, Susan, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.200 and spent time with her boyfriend Freddie. Freddie wore a 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.720 ponytail and was missing three front teeth and had a 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.440 nasty scar under his lip. 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.240 He was very free spirited, I guess want to say. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.920 You know, he spent a lot of his life in jail, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.559 and he was very for his age, kind of sure. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.600 The house was the sort of place where the adults 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.920 often behaved like teens instead of authority figures, big party, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.800 just as hard as the kids they were raising, shared 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.000 their beer and Newport's with him, and brought around men 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.120 like Freddy. How did Freddy support himself? 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.880 I think he did odd jobs. I think he was 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:27.000 a carpenter. He did do carpentry work. He also said 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:27.880 he was a reverend. 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:30.800 Did Freddie strike you as religious? 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:38.520 No, Yeah, he wasn't godly at all. You're covered in tattoos, 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.040 and you know, I remember them being on his arms 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.280 and they were like jelhouse tattoos, So you know, like 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.480 the tattoos that after years they just looked like blah. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.360 That's kind of like how I remember his tattoos being 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.240 like some you can't even make out exactly. He tell 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.120 you it was a horse, and you're like what. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.960 The Putnam cops took a run at Freddy after Joe 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.000 said his body was found. His mugshots are in the 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:07.000 case file, as well as pages of handwritten notes about him. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.720 One of those pages describes his jail house tats and 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.040 that wasn't a worse on Freddy's forearm, it was a 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.360 circle of clansmen burning crosses. And there's another note in 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.520 that file apparently Freddie had founded a white supremacist gang 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.839 while in prison. There's also a number of people said 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.880 that Freddy held neo Nazi hughes. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.440 Well maybe that's what he was a reverend in. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.640 I couldn't corroborate that Freddy was ordained in anything, but 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.720 it was easy enough to confirm that he'd done a 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.000 serious stretch in prison. Do you know what he went 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:47.760 to prison for? 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.319 I honestly killing a man for killing him man, I 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:52.520 want to say killing a man. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.600 There aren't any murders on Freddie's sheet, at least none 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.640 I could find, and there aren't any details on his 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.360 egg evaded assaults, the counts that sent him to prison. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.400 But there are statements in that file from Josette's friends. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.719 They said Freddie often called Josette nasty names, and one 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.480 of them said he slapped her hard in the face 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:16.800 after she asked him for pizza money. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.040 I know that she didn't like Freddy. 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.920 Josette's dad was in California and been out of the 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.760 picture for years. Her mom worked two jobs to support 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.480 three school age kids and often left Josette to her 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.400 own devices. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.640 She wanted to be seen, and her mom probably was 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.439 the person she needed to be seen by. 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:45.000 To keep herself busy, Josette wandered the streets. She was 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.280 constantly seen walking the town at all hours alone, from 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:56.080 the age of ten. Carmel, New York, is a town 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.600 surrounded on four sides by the lakes of the Hudson Valley. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.360 It's an hour or so from midtown Manhattan, as one 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.120 of the more well off towns in Putnam County, but 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.120 Carmel isn't a suburb for CFOs It's where cops and 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.080 firemen move their families. In the white flight panic of 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:18.120 the nineteen seventies, they built their homes on banks of 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.040 Lake Carmel. Then it advertently fouled the waters with the 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.000 runoff from their cheap septic tanks. I've spoken to a 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.319 number of locals who swam the lake as kids. They 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.120 told me they'd come down with weird sinus problems or 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.800 gastric flare ups that hung on for a week after 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.000 they took a dip. Still, you can certainly find beauty 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:43.040 on Carmel. There's a post guard perfect town square with 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:47.000 its quaint old courthouse and banners hanging from lampposts to 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.840 the sons who went to war. They're twisty roads up 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:56.120 dense green hills where lakeviews sparkle between the trees. But 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.240 drive the main drag in either direction, you'll pass strip 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.600 malls with down her shuttered stores. From the first time 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.120 I walked here, I had the sense I was being watched. 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.199 There's a vibe here you don't get in the posher 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:14.640 towns west of Carmel, a deep going suspicion of strangers. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.840 A mile up the hill from carmel'stown square stands the 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.520 house where Josette lived. On her walk down that hill, 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:26.880 she'd passed the girls home. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.400 On her left, she walks by the group home a lot. 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.840 We were like a pit stop. I guess I think 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.000 that's how we ended up starting to talk to her, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.640 and she became like talking to all the group home girls. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.200 Having seen firsthand what her home life was like, Rachel 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.760 got why that group home was Josette's pit stop. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.480 It gave her something to do. She wasn't just walking 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.480 around aimlessly, or she wasn't, you know, by herself. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.640 Something the lost girl herself. Rachel felt for Josette became 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.640 a kind of a big sister to her. She made 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.080 time for at the group home and bought her snacks 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.440 at the deli. The two of them formed a bond 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.040 that deepened the following year, when Rachel left Cabrini and 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.080 moved back home. Her mom had rented an apartment in Carmel, 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.440 a ten minute walk from the group home. Within weeks, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.040 if not days, Josette showed up there. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.240 She spent a lot of time with my mom as well. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:30.400 My mama taught her how to crochet and just you know, 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:40.720 passing the time together. My mom would make everything like potholders, napkins, blankets, scarves, 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.880 you know, like she would make everything. But I remember 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.920 her just teaching her, how do you like just do 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.520 a single stitch, or to do a little box. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.560 And they'd sit at a table together. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.120 My mom never sat at a table show. We sat 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:59.280 on the floor, so they'd probably sit on the floor. 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.760 After a while. Josette was over there all the time. 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:07.560 She was a part of the household and you know, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:13.320 eating dinners together and things like that. Yeah, she belonged. 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.960 She was very energetic, she was very loving, she was 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.600 very kind. I don't know why I think of a horse, 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:25.640 but she was very a gentile person, you know, was 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:30.800 just looking in the pastor looking to belong somewhere and 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:31.760 and feel like she did. 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.080 But several months later, in the summer of ninety four, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.760 Rachel and her family decided to move to Pauling, half 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:46.800 hour drive from Carmel. The day they finished packing, Josette 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:48.120 showed up at their front door. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.520 She was there as we were leaving, and I remember 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.640 her saying, just take me. They won't even notice I'm gone. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.120 I was like, we can't, we can't take you. I 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.040 told her that she couldn't come with us. She was crying. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.080 I think we both were should have just taken her, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.200 you know. It crusted me. I worried about her. I 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.960 worried about her. 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.960 After she moved away, Rachel lost touch with Josette. Then, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.440 four months after she left, Rachel got news from her 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:54.360 mother Josette had gone missing, just vanished. October third, nineteen 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.560 ninety four. It was the last day Josette was seen 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.600 in Carmel. She stepped off a square wool bus in 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.480 front of her small ranch house at three o'clock that afternoon. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.560 The house, per usual, was packed with teens, Josette's two 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:15.640 older sisters, their friends. Putnam detectives would later interview those teens. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.639 One said Josette had argued with her sister, Chloe before 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:24.040 walking out of the house. Josette, she said, admired Chloe 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.159 and tried to mix in with her click, but the 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.400 older girls would have none of it. That day, nasty 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:35.040 words were exchanged, according to those teens. Josette called her mom, 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.080 saying she was going over to a friend's house. Then 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.200 she went to the basement and made a second call. 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.560 She briefly left the house and stood on the porch 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.720 waiting there in her thin brown jacket. When no one 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.159 showed up, she went back in the house. There she 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.000 did a very odd thing. She went up to her sister, Shelley, 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:59.280 stood in front of her staring, then said goodbye and left. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.080 At three forty five, she went walking down the hill, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.160 headed toward the shops downtown. That night, when she didn't 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.320 come home for dinner, her mom, Susan, called around to 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.879 Josette's friends and knocked on the doors of their houses. 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:17.880 None of them had seen her since school let out, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.160 so Susan asked her daughters if she should call the cops. 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.320 Her oldest girl, Shelley, nixed the idea, saying that cops 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.800 do nothing until forty eight hours passed. Nonetheless, Susan called 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:37.679 the next morning when there was still no sign up Josette. Backstaldo, 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.160 the others impersonating detective was a sign to find Josette, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.200 but he had no training in missing person searches. He'd 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.760 spent the bulk of his career as a deputy and 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.439 detective in a narcotic squad, so with no leads to 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.440 go on, he focused on the town's drug dealers, starting 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.480 with Anthony to Pippo, I. 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.760 Would not really argue that I was a successful drug dealer. 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.199 I wouldn't even argue that it broke even. You know, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:14.280 I covered some costs, but mostly ingested more than I 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:15.000 was ever intent. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.399 Anthony was all of eighteen when Joe's atte wright went missing. 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.760 At six or five and two hundred and thirty pounds. 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.720 He walked and talked like an underground wrestler, which was 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.359 exactly the sort of vibe he was going for. He 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.040 and his boys got up the crazy stuff together. They 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:38.560 stayed many WrestleMania's in their yards, breaking chairs and tube 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.120 lights over each other's skulls. They ditched class to get 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.840 high and sell we to their classmates, and any money 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:50.040 Anthony made never amounted him much was used to fund 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.840 his rave trips to the city. You know, the music 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:55.240 was like. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.120 And then they would have these laser lights and these 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.960 smoke machines. You got five thousand kids and they're just 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.440 in there in half of them don't even know they're there, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.160 and the other half were just dancing until they drop. 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.600 And his buddies would walk the South Bronx at night, 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.480 the cop weed an angel dusk and dance too gone 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.680 at the Rays and Chelsea clubs. 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.479 So like the city ones are early the best ones, 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:28.800 and it's like just it's it's it's an experience, you know, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:29.480 I wasn't. 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.240 They drive home with carmel high off their heads, seeing 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.920 two of everything, including the Cross County Parkway. 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:38.520 Listening to the music on the way there, listening to 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.440 music on the way back. We're driving our vehicle smoking 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.359 space base. Now we're mixing the crack and the dust 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.320 and off the cloud. 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:47.680 Nine. 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.360 In a town with a little or no violent crime, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.880 Anthony had his run ins with the cops. 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:01.440 My first real encounter with the cops was it was 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:07.439 criminal mischief. I threw a metal garbage can at the 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.640 window of a Metro North train and then the cops 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.120 all of a sudden came and they started running after us, 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:16.120 and so I ran and I got in the woods 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.159 and they were bringing the dog, Rebel, the canine. So 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:22.000 I'm like fox, I tried to bury myself in these leaves, 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:24.360 and I'm like, the fucking dog comes right up there, 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:28.080 she finds me, like you got me. It takes me 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:30.920 into jail and it felt like, you know, it felt 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:34.960 kind of like a badge honor. That was crazy. I 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:36.760 had just shaved the sides of my head and I 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.160 had all this leaf particles on it, and I was itchy, 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.359 and I guess I probably ran into some poison, ivy 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:45.920 or something. I would love to have all of my 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:46.920 mug shots back. 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.080 You could say Anthony had a rep around too. 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.199 They stood out based on their clothes and actually this 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.880 was probably cutting edge at that time to have them bag, 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:04.240 you know, hanging you know, your butt hanging out. They 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:06.720 looked exactly like unsavories. 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.119 That's Peter Erickson again, he's one of the hunters who 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.480 was in the woods today Joseid's bones were found. You 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:17.160 remember seeing Anthony and his boys around town. 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:20.560 They had that type of look like they were the 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.320 type of kids that were selling drugs and school kids 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:23.680 as they were walking up from the school of the 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:25.600 Delhi not kids i'd want my. 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:26.399 Daughter to come home with. 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.000 And I would assume at that time a lot of 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:31.480 people had that same opinion. 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:42.160 You couldn't you couldn't miss Anthony. He's huge. I'm sure 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:45.080 they like stereotyped him to be a thug or you know, 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:47.400 a hood rat or however you want to call him. 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.040 But yet he was always soft spoken, you know, like 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.600 he's he was this big guy, but yet so teddy bears. 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:58.359 Rachel got to know Anthony on that group home porch 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:01.600 he dropped out of with a dozen or so girls 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:02.399 who lived. 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:06.320 There, Saint Cobrini's group home. It was on Seminary Hill Road. 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.199 We'd hang we'd hang out and talk and you know, 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.919 sometimes we'd sneak off a little bit and smoke or 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:15.160 make out whatever. 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:16.840 And I'm a young guy. 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.040 There's a lot of young girls. It's like, you know, hey, 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:21.480 you don't know, you don't want to smoke pot? Yeah, 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:24.360 they were already having pot problems, so that's what we did. 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:28.719 Anthony was often there with his best friend Andy, and 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:31.879 he was a lot smaller than Anthony, maybe five seven 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:35.680 in boots, but had a short king's confidence around girls 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:38.800 around guys, though he had a quick, fused temper. 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:44.280 Andy he was more of the well what you know, 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:48.600 I'm not I'm not trying to you know, like, but 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:52.399 if if you had a problem with him, he wanted 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:57.359 to know why. And I remember Anthony and Andy with 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:01.040 this big old juke box, you know, like they would 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:03.679 just be doing nothing and get blamed for something like 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.840 something just as walking up and down a hill with 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:09.160 a jukebox, you know, like water Order. 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:13.679 Or Detective Nostaldo suspected Anthony was more than just a 0:25:13.720 --> 0:25:17.600 two bit dealer. Anthony found that out one cold winter morning, 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:20.160 three months after Jezz had disappeared. 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:24.160 I'm walking down three on one. Now. Three on one 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:26.760 is a road that goes to Cold Spring. It's a 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:30.119 long road. I didn't have my license yet. I just 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:32.000 had a permit, and I didn't have a car. 0:25:33.000 --> 0:25:35.800 He's walking home from a girlfriend's house where he just 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:39.159 spent the night. Now, if you ask him, Anthony was 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:41.800