WEBVTT - Introducing - Killer Story | 1. A Rose for Mom 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.320 Hi, there is Steve Fishman from Orbit Media. I want 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.200 to introduce today's featured episode. It's the pilot of our 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:11.840 new true crime thriller, Killer Story. It's a series about 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.960 a teenager with dreams, a murder that no one knew 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.000 was a murder, and a reporter with a hidden past 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:23.079 that drives her to pursue this hopeless story for years. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.799 You're going to love the reporter, brazen, cunning when she 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:32.200 has to be, and always endlessly relentless. Oh and there's 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.560 a love story in the middle of this podcast too. 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.320 The series is distributed by Sony Music and you can 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.440 listen wherever you get your podcasts, or you can hear 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.720 all episodes of Killer Story right now by going to 0:00:46.760 --> 0:01:05.399 the Binge dot com enjoy. It's just after dawn in 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.560 late September nineteen eighty seven and Tom Percival is about 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.959 half an hour by car from Las Vegas. He's just 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.880 launched his boat into the Colorado River. His wife is 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.040 with him. They've planned a day with the kids playing 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.160 in the river's clean, clear water. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.800 We were probably that ten twelve minutes into the water. 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.360 As they head across the water, the two watch out 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:35.920 for debris and their path. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.720 And that's when I see it. It's about seventy five 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.319 feet away, seventy five eighty feet something like that. Dcolder 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.320 was a log just looked like it was barely floating underwater, 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.040 just barely breaking the surface. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.640 Tom's not convinced, so he steers the boat closer. As 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.600 he approaches, time seems to stand still. 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:07.760 I remembered everything. I mean, I could probably even tell 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:09.880 you how many ripples were in the water at the time. 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.960 Tom sees something unusual. He can't tell what it is. 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:21.320 Looked like a beautiful mannequin. So I took the oar 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.560 and kind of pushed on her, and she went about 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.600 six inches under water and then floated back to the surface. 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:36.280 And I'm going, no, it it was a girl. I 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.560 didn't want to hurt her skin. I didn't want to 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.200 touch right, I didn't want to touch her, and I 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.680 was only just far away from her six eight inches. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.480 I remember looking at her hair, beautiful hair floating in 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.480 the water, just floating out like a like a like 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:01.880 a rainbow, kind of like it's beautiful. And she did 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.880 have this like a mossy green tent all over the 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:11.120 skin that I could see. And that's when I noticed 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.400 a tear drop right in the corner of her eye. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.359 I saw a bloody tear. I had not lost it 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.080 right there. I've said, who would do this to this 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:22.680 poor girl? 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:33.240 The girl's name was Sabrina Kid, but no one knew that. 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.400 They won't know that for years. Nobody will know that 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.360 Sabrina is dead, and still wouldn't know if not for 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.880 the preternatural drive. I'm a total stranger, a stranger who 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.520 decided for her own reasons to find out what happened 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:56.560 to Sabrina. This is a story of lies, cons and 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:57.480 cover ups. 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.680 He said she never came home. That motherfucker's line. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.480 And if a woman compelled to get justice for someone 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:05.600 she's never met. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.320 No one ever did tell me anything. I did it 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.800 because I wanted to, because I was telling the truth. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:15.920 And it's a story of yearning for better endings, because I. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.080 Just want someone to love me, someone to care about 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:18.920 me unconditionally. 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.880 From Sony Music Entertainment and Orbit Media. You're listening to 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.840 Killer Story ad free on the binge where you get 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.360 all episodes all at once. This is episode one. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:50.839 Arose for Mom. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.000 Head west from the Colorado River and you'll most likely 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:58.240 run into Las Vegas, known across America as Sin City. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.599 That's its attract Las Vegas is a place to do 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.719 whatever you want. People float into Vegas to shake off 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.640 their work today selves. They hit the Vegas Strip, a 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.360 row of casinos with high stepping showgirls and flashing neon 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.479 lights so bright you can see the miles into the 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.560 Mojave Desert. Viva Las Vegas. A place where adults gamble 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:27.279 on changing their stories. What Sin City is not is 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.719 a place for a beautiful, naive teenager. So why in 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.280 the late spring of nineteen eighty seven did seventeen year 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.040 old Sabrina Kid moved to Vegas alone. The answers begin 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:47.200 with her mother, don't they always. It's the nineteen eighties 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.239 and Sabrina is a child living with her mom, Bobby 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.239 Sue in Texas. 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:53.840 She worshiped her mom. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:56.760 This is Dewana, Sabrina's first cousin. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.159 I remember when I would go over and I would 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.800 spend the weekend. Were at my aunt Bobby's, and Sabrina 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.920 and I would we would go walk the Strip mall. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.080 Sabrina was probably eight or nine at the time. At 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.640 the strip mall, they drifted past store windows, peering in 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.000 until Sabrina found what she wanted, always the same thing. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.360 Then her pride deal was always to stop and get 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:22.279 her mom a rose. 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.480 And so I picture a young girl walking with a 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.520 single rose in her hand. She holds it in front 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.880 of her like a candle. I imagine it's red. She's 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.760 moving with purpose, eager to get home to Mom with 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.720 her special gifts. But Mom wasn't always there, not emotionally 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:47.200 at least. Mom was beautiful herself, a playboy model at 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.839 one point, according to Dowana, and men flocked. And when 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.279 a man came into Bobby Sue's life, well that's when 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:01.040 Mom's focus changed and Sabrina was out of the picture. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.320 She spoiled Sabrina and gave her just about whatever she wanted, 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.280 I mean material things she didn't do without. But my 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.080 mom was always gone. So you know, as long as 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.480 Sabrina got in the way of her boyfriends or got 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.120 in the way of anything, then you know, she just 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:19.480 shoved her off onto people. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.720 At seventeen, Sabrina moved in with Dewana, whose family had 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.520 migrated from Texas to Vegas. They shared an apartment for 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:31.040 a time. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:33.480 She was there in the one bed, and I was 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.800 in the other bed and I asked her, I said, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.360 what do you want? And she goes, I just want 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.080 someone to love me, someone to care about me unconditionally 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:42.240 and not judge me. 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.440 Did you remember saying anything to that? 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:50.360 I told her, you know, I love you. 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.560 Sabrina wasn't particularly bold or assertive. She didn't strike people 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.840 as driven. She was running from not too but she 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.200 was a good friend, the kind everyone values. This is 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:07.240 her friend Jennifer. 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.600 She was just a really nice, good hearted person, and 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.200 she was very trusting, and she was a good friend. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.040 And the big standout for me is that she was 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.360 just just really kind. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.520 Sabrina did have moments of conflict, and not just with 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.400 her mother. A few weeks after she moved in with 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.920 her cousin do Wana, they had a falling out. Do 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.160 Wanna didn't approve of a guy Sabrina was seeing so 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.760 much for unconditional love. The boyfriend was soon gone and 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.000 Sabrina was on her own again, hunting for a job 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.880 and a home where she felt welcome. I imagine her 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:55.280 rippling with anxiety, and yeah, I find that heartbreaking. Seventeen 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.920 and on your own and just wanting to be loved. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.720 Then she met Jim and life seemed to get better. 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:05.960 They met at a party. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:08.720 As as I saw her, I was like, Wow, she's 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.200 a kiddie, and so obviously I. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.800 Started to strike up the conversation and we just hit 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:15.200 it off. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.440 This is Jim Bixel. Jim was a good looking Vegas native. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.520 He sported a moment when it was the going fashion 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.000 and usually wore a leather motorcycle jacket. 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.440 She didn't get into detail with me, but just the 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.480 little things that she did tell me. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.439 Yeah, she did not have a great childhood. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.400 So one of my goals was just for me to 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.760 make sure she had a great time whenever we were together. 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.640 A lot of those great times involved Jim's motorcycle. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.360 I bought a Kawasaki Ninja six hundred. The cross Rocket 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.200 is what we called it. On the weekends, we'd meet 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.240 at the Old Wet and Wild Water Park on Las 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.800 Vegas Boulevard on the strip, right next to Sarah Hotel, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.280 and then at midnight we would all take off and 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.160 we do really fast long rides. 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.560 Somewhere. We went up to Mount Charleston. 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.800 Mount Charleston is over two miles high. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.480 We came down that canyon and we were doing one 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.240 hundred and thirty five hundred and forty miles an hour. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.680 She was definitely pulled it on for dear life. She 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.240 would love going fast. She would say, you know, right 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.680 on the bike really makes me feel free. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.880 In Las Vegas, friends remember Sabrina as a blonde, though 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.920 I've seen early photos, and in them she's a brunette 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:42.000 with thick, gentle waves of hair. She has hazel eyes. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.600 Her skin is almost as pale as her shining teeth. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.000 In most of the photos, she's smiling, though it strikes 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.640 me as the smile you put on for the camera, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:57.120 thinking one thing, showing another. To me, Sabrina looks almost 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:02.200 middle aged in these photos. In one she actually wears pearls. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.400 She looks ready for a job as a bank teller 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.120 in Vegas. Sabrina seems to shake off the person she 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.960 was for one thing. She lightens her hair and she 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.240 crafts a signature hairstyle, short on one side, long on 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:26.960 the other, and sometimes she manages to feel free. Jim 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:31.400 introduces Sabrina to his friends. One a childhood friend lives 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.680 with his girlfriend at his father's house. Turns out that 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.720 his father has an extra bedroom to rent and Sabrina 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:38.880 jumps at the chance. 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.079 So Sabrina liked that idea, said yeah, I'll do that. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.960 Sabrina hasn't had a steady address in the six months 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.960 she's been in Vegas, and now that problem seems solved. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.600 Life seems to be getting better and better for Sabrina. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.920 A dependable living situation, new friends, a boyfriend who makes 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.640 her feel free, and she's recently interviewed for a job 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.319 at the fashion wall and she landed it, her first 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:10.800 solid gig since arriving in Las Vegas. She seems to have, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.400 to her credit, developed a network of support in an 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.480 intimidating new city. And then another break. Her friend's father, 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:20.840 her landlord. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.200 He asked her something the effect of, hey, what do 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.880 you want to do ultimately with your life? 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.400 And she said, you know, I'd like to be a model. 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:33.800 And her landlord, a kind fatherly figure, encouraged her. And 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.080 so for Sabrina kid life is looking pretty good. She's 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.720 too young to gamble, but it's as if she walked 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:45.920 into a casino and exited with a pocket full of cash. 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.280 And then, just as everything is coming together, one morning 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.720 in late summer, one of Sabrina's best friends knocks on 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.800 her door, expecting to spend the day with her. Instead, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.280 she learns that Sabrina didn't come home home the previous night. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:09.560 No one sees her ever again. Sabrina vanishes. Why How? 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:13.040 What happened to this promising life? On that late summer 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:28.920 morning in Las Vegas, Sabrina made a couple of close friends, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.920 Jennifer and Crystal. They were the same age as Sabrina, seventeen. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:39.120 They'd grown up in Vegas. The three were a striking trio, young, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.360 full of life and pretty. They snuck into Caesar's Palace 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.880 to hear their favorite bands. They went to high school parties. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:52.200 They talked nearly every day. This is Jennifer, you. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.840 Talk about like girl shed and boys and what are 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:58.800 we doing this weekend? And what are you wearing? That's 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.200 the kind of stuff today. It's weekend to weekend. It's 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.600 not really deep like oh my mother's you know it 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.400 doesn't It never got into that. 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.920 So you were all seventeen, Yeah, Vegas was a good 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.960 town to be seventeen, and it was because. 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.040 You knew everybody. You know, there was only so many 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.080 high schools. Everybody knew everybody. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.880 So they did last Vegacy things like hang on the 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.800 strip and teenage things like attend a junior varsity football game, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.720 which is what was on the agenda on what would 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:40.880 be the evening before Sabrina disappeared. After Sabrina vanished, Jennifer 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.880 and Crystal Wood review again and again their last hours together. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.840 It's September seventeenth, nineteen eighty seven. The evening starts with 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.160 a junior varsity football game at Valley High School. It's 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.280 a bit after sunset, and Crystal picks up some Sabrina 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.200 doesn't have a car, though with her new job, it's 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.600 on her list. As usual, Sabrina looks great. She's tall 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.600 and slender. Her nails are painted pink, her favorite color 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.640 from childhood. A couple of boys decide to flirt with Sabrina, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:21.040 which annoys the boys at girlfriend's harshing the mellow Crystal 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.400 and Sabrina leave in a bad mood, talking about those 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:31.160 rude girls. A bit after eight pm, Crystal drops Sabrina 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.400 off at her place. An hour or so later that 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:39.880 same evening, so still September seventeenth, Jennifer picks Sabrina up 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.160 around nine pm. They head over to Jennifer's boyfriend's apartment. 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.360 He's older and has his own place. Both Jennifer and 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:55.080 Sabrina spend the night. It's now morning, September eighteenth. Sabrina's 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:59.520 running late for work and starts shaking Jennifer awake. Sabrina 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.320 needs a rick home because Crystal is picking her up. 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.200 Crystal and Sabrina are both working at Lane Brian at 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.040 the fashion mall and they can't be late, so Jennifer 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.000 drives Sabrina back to her place. She drops Sabrina at 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.600 about eight thirty in the morning. The drop off will 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.000 stick in Jennifer's mind because Sabrina doesn't have her keys. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.000 She empties her purse in Jennifer's car looking for them, 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.840 but no luck. Sabrina has to knock on the door. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:34.840 Jennifer remembers that the landlord lets Sabrina in. You dropped 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.160 her off at like nine in the morning and it 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.040 was early yeah. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:41.560 Right. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.840 About an hour later, Crystal pulls up to Sabrina's place. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.880 It's around nine to thirty in the morning. Sitting in 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.760 her car, Crystal honks, expecting Sabrina to pop out. As 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.760 her friends know, Sabrina is dependable and always He's punctual, 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:06.320 but Sabrina doesn't appear, so Crystal gets out of her 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.120 car and goes to the front door and knocks two times, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:15.000 three times. The door finally opens, but only a few inches. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.240 It's the landlord in his bathrobe. Usually he's friendly to 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.200 Crystal and invites her in. This morning, he seems put out. 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.879 Crystal asks him, you've seen Sabrina. We're supposed to go 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.600 to work. I told her I would meet her. She's 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.600 not home. The landlord tells her he doesn't know where 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:42.879 she is, so Crystal heads to work alone. Sabrina doesn't 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:47.040 show up. Cristal doesn't hear from Sabrina all day, and 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:53.119 neither does Jennifer, and they're usually in touch daily. Sabrina 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.240 had mentioned an opportunity to go to California for free 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.000 that weekend. Maybe she's taken up that offer. Maybe it's 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.399 kind to modeling work or that guy she just meant. Still, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:11.080 it isn't like Sabrina to be out of touch. Jennifer says, 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.600 they have to go to the police. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:15.960 We waited twenty four hours and then we went to 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.919 the police. We said she's missing, something happened, and they 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.879 just didn't believe us. One point, they said that she 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.399 was class as a runaway and there's nothing they could do. 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.080 Jennifer isn't satisfied when Sabrina doesn't show up. In the 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.199 next couple of days, she and Crystal returned to the 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.960 police department. This time the cops accused them. 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.840 I remember them saying, oh, you were a prostitute that 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:48.080 went to Caesar's Palace, and I was like, no, even 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:49.760 if it was for it had nothing to fucking do 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.280 with the fact that she's missing. I remember being so 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:57.480 fucking angry. 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.680 What happens after Jennifer and Crystal visit the police. As 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.760 far as they can tell, nothing. Sabrina's case is filed 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:10.000 with the files of hundreds of other missing teenagers, seemingly 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:16.520 a final resting spot, except that her family back in Texas, 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.720 Bobby Sue. Sabrina's mother, along with her aunt, will not 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:25.600 give up. They scour missing person reports from around the country. 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.680 They reach out to media. If they could just get 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:34.760 her image on TV, maybe someone would recognize her four 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:39.120 excruciating years past like this, it's now nineteen ninety one, 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.679 and someone mother or aunt gets an idea. There's a 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.560 very popular new tabloid TV show, A current affair maybe 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.359 they'd taken an interest in the story of a beautiful 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.720 teenager who mysteriously vanishes in Las Vegas. It's worth a shot. 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.840 And I'm sitting there one day on the phone rings 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:01.600 and I pick it up. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.320 So in nineteen ninety one, Lindall Marx answers the phone 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.760 in her office. Lindall is at that moment a new 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.800 reporter at the wildly popular TV show A turn affair 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.040 leader in the newest TV genre, the tabloid. 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.920 I mean, we would get calls often. It would be 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:44.359 people that knew were crazy, people who just had dumb stories, 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.240 just unbelievable stories, or you know, I've spotted a celebrity 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:52.640 or whatever, and you know, how much? How much will 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.159 you pay for my tape today? 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.080 The caller is a woman, middle aged. From the sound 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.919 of her voice, I've spoken a Texas draw. She introduces 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.840 herself as the aunt Lindall. Here's the mother in the background. 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.440 So I'm talking to her. I'm talking to her and 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:19.280 and they weren't crazy at all. And this woman tells 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:23.560 me that her niece is missing, and my first reaction 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:25.119 was okay. 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.040 Theann explains that her niece was living in Las Vegas 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:30.520 when she vanished. 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:35.280 And she was clearly upset. We have phoned newspapers, We've 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:37.840 phoned other people in the media, we have phoned the 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.520 local press. No one cares. We can't get anyone to 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:50.560 do anything. You are our last resort, right Okay, So 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.680 what have you done? Have you told the police? Yes, 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.160 but the police have done nothing. What do you mean 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.760 the police have done nothing. We reported her missing a 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.439 few days after she went miss they've done nothing. And 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.360 when I hear that, that makes me go, I'm here 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:08.520 for you. I will listen to you. 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.800 Linda is in her twenties and already a seasoned reporter. 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.080 She comes from a hard news background. She's Australian, but 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.760 more at home in a place like New York, where 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.920 ambition and she's ambitious matters. 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:24.320 I've seen a. 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.080 Bunch of her TV segments from the nineties, and she 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.520 looks cool in a ninety sort of way, petite with 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.840 perfect bangs and those shoulder pads that seem so excellent 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.280 back then. She's down to earth. She does her own 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:43.159 makeup for TV. As a reporter, she's old school, lots 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:48.800 of shoe leather, door knocking, file searching, and relentless like 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:54.280 irrationally relentless, prides herself on that. The word hard bitten 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:55.240 comes to mind. 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:57.080 You never take no for an answer. 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:01.920 But also she's like wildly idealless. She seems to truly 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.919 believe that her efforts, her relentless efforts, can change the 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:07.960 course of history. 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:11.480 If I feel like there's a big man kicking a 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:15.000 little guy in the guts, I will go after that story. 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:17.640 I will go after that with aggression and passion. 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:22.760 And from where she sits at a desk on a 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.000 phone in a New York office, the mom and the 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:30.639 aunt in Texas are the little guys. Lindall can't believe 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.240 that the cops shrugged at the report of their missing girl, 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:38.680 that they shirked their duty for a soft spoken, helpless 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.520 aunt and mother. The system couldn't be bothered, or so 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:47.120 it seemed to Lindall at that moment. On the phone, 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:51.120 the aunt shares more details. She says, her niece disappeared 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.199 from Las Vegas when she was seventeen. 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:58.080 I asked her when did she go missing? She said, 0:23:58.400 --> 0:23:59.160 four years ago? 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:05.040 WHOA, Lindall? Four years ago? And they're just popping up now. 0:24:05.880 --> 0:24:09.760 If there was a trail, it's not there. Anymore. That 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:12.880 timetable would have made a lot of reporters hang up. 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:15.320 Lindall keeps listening. 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:20.000 So she's begging me to help. I just I filled 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:23.080 a connection with that family. I felt their pain, and 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:28.199 I just I felt something was wrong. People don't just 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:29.719 disappear into thin air. 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:34.600 So, Lindall, you thought everyone's pushed him aside, so you 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:35.719 can do something different. 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:45.040 Yeah, one, just one problem. 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.080 Lindall doesn't actually have the authority to decide what story 0:24:49.200 --> 0:24:52.400 she works on at a current affair. There's a chain 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:55.560 of command, So she hangs up with the mother and 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:59.080 aunt and heads to the office of news editor Dan, 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:05.240 meaning it's Dan who clears or kills story ideas. Reporters 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.920 are in and out of his office all day. It's 0:25:07.960 --> 0:25:12.480 a busy place. Lindall edges her way in. This is Dan. 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:15.239 She came up to me and said she got a 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:20.159 phone call and what do I think of this story? 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:23.480 I said, it's some missing persons. We don't do missing persons. 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:28.400 There's no conclusion to the story, and she kept insisting 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:30.560 there was. I said, I can't, no, I can't waste 0:25:30.560 --> 0:25:34.480 any money on this. I'm sorry, there. 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:37.560 Is something going on here. This this just doesn't sound right. 0:25:37.680 --> 0:25:40.720 She's so young. How do you not follow this kid? 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:43.960 She's a baby? How do you not follow that? How 0:25:44.000 --> 0:25:44.920 do you ignore a mother? 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:48.280 She argued with me and said, it's a story here, 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:51.800 I'm telling you I feel it. This is a missing girl, 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:55.920 and it's not a murder investigation, and we don't have facts. 0:25:57.680 --> 0:25:59.600 What is the viewer going to walk away with? 0:26:00.320 --> 0:26:05.040 Lindall, He's being clear, Stop the nonsense, get back to work. 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:07.760 You know, this is a sausage factory and I've got 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:11.000 to come up with about four or five stories a night. 0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:16.520 So I can't be wasting my time on stories that 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:18.520 I feel doesn't have a conclusion. 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:23.760 Lindall's reaction, Yeah, totally fuck off. 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:29.280 All right, So a girl is missing, a girl who 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:33.560 because a one phone call Linda feels tied to and 0:26:33.640 --> 0:26:36.840 so guess what, Linda will find a way. 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:41.560 When I feel something and my instinct is telling me 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:46.320 this is right, I have to follow this, I will 0:26:46.320 --> 0:26:50.280 follow it. I will go down every rabbit hole if 0:26:50.320 --> 0:26:52.359 I feel like a victim hasn't been given a voice, 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:56.040