All language subtitles for WEB.Of.Death.S01E04.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Violet: When you make a promise
to the old people,

you don´t break that promise.

You have to live that promise.

"Find her, bring her home."

Those were
my grandmother´s instructions.

Many have been lost.

Many have been murdered.

It´s still happening.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Steve: She´d been stabbed
more than 28 times.

She had no I.D. with her,

no indication of who she was,
where she came from.

They´re someone´s sister,
possibly someone´s wife.

And there´s got to be people
out there that knew them.

Ratliff:
There really wasn´t anyone

that called to inquire
about her.

The case grew cold.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

You cannot dispute DNA evidence.
You just can´t.

Soosay:
I´ve been looking for 40 years.

You don´t give up.
You can´t stop.

We couldn´t imagine, you know,
"What happened?"

Where´d you go?

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

My name is Steve Rhods.

I´m a detective
for the Ventura County

District Attorney´s Office,

and I´m assigned
to the Cold Case Unit.

When I open a cold case,
I go straight to the evidence.

What kind of evidence
do we have?

So it was July the 15th, 1980.

The Kern County Sheriff´s Office
was summoned

to an almond orchard
off the Highway 99,

just outside
of the town of Delano.

♫♫

There they encountered a female,
fully clothed,

lying in the orchard.

She had no I.D. with her,

no indication of who she was,
where she came from.

Lying near her on the ground
was a beer bottle

and a pack of cigarettes,
some tire tracks.

And that was the extent
of the evidence

other than what was confined
to her body.

Later, they did an autopsy
on this woman

who we refer to
as Jane Doe Kern County.

They found that she´d been
stabbed more than 28 times.

Her blood alcohol was 0.3.

So she was quite intoxicated
at the time of the assault.

And the medical examiner felt
that this was a forced assault.

Her sneakers
were pristine, white.

There was no blood
on the top of her sneakers.

She had been stabbed lying down
and she never stood up.

Blood never drained
onto her feet,

so the presumption was that
she was killed elsewhere,

brought to that orchard
and left in the orchard.

[ Bird squawks ]

I´m Dawn Ratliff, and I
am the coroner division chief

for the Kern County Sheriff
Coroner´s Office.

Her cause of death
was multiple stab wounds.

There were also evidence
of defensive wounds.

Once cause and manner
of death is established,

one of the very first priorities

is for us to complete
an identification

and then to find family members
and notify them about the death.

We fingerprinted and there were
no prints on file.

That´s where her case
got more difficult.

Steve: Evidence was collected
from Jane Doe Kern,

and they preserved it and kept
all that stuff in a freezer.

Ratliff: My first thought is,

"She is somebody
that someone should miss,"

but there really wasn´t anyone
that called to inquire

about her, so she remained

Jane Doe,
Kern County, number five.

♫♫

♫♫

Violet: Family is very important
in our community

and in the indigenous community.

Looking out for each other
and checking in on each other.

I´ll make bannock and check
on the brothers.

So family has always
been important to us.

My name is Violet Soosay.
That´s my English name.

My Cree name is
[speaks native language]

And I´ve been looking
for my aunt

since I was in my early 20s.

Shirley was very light-hearted,

very gentle,

I used to have real curly hair.

And I would run when somebody
had a comb or a brush.

Not Shirley.

Shirley was one I would trust.

And she was always
combing my hair.

She always made me
feel very special.

I would cross the field
just to go see her every day

because I was
so connected with her.

Yeah. I really loved her.

Really, really loved her.

[ Birds chirping ]

In the early ´70s,

because a lot of us
were in poverty,

more people were
venturing off the reserve,

moving to urban centers.

Shirley had this vision
of helping her mom

financially by
working off reserve.

That was her thinking.

I think she liked living away
from the reserve

because she was like
a free spirit.

So she just lived
her life in Vancouver.

However, Shirley was
really meticulous.

She would send Christmas cards,
birthday cards,

letters constantly to her mom.

And I´m pretty sure
it was December of ´79

that my grandmother
didn´t receive a Christmas card.

March of 1980, she didn´t
receive her birthday card.

And that´s when she said,

"Something´s going on.
Something´s wrong."

We couldn´t imagine,
you know, "What happened?

Where´d you go?"

And it was about a year later,
in 1981,

when my grandmother
told my Auntie Belle and myself

to look for her

and promise her
to bring her home.

"Find her, bring her home."

♫♫

♫♫

[ Waves crashing ]

♫♫

Steve: I became a policeman
back in my youth

with the sheriff´s office
here in Ventura County,

became a detective,
first in Property Crimes,

and then later
I moved into Homicide.

And when I retired in 2012,

I was invited to come back
to the Cold Case unit.

I enjoy a good problem.
I enjoy solving the problem.

I specifically enjoy
looking out for our victims.

They´ve been wronged.

Someone needs to speak for them,
and that´s what I choose to do.

Jane Doe Kerns -- one
of a number of investigations

that I´m working on.

On July 18, 1980,
at about 12:35 in the afternoon,

Ventura County Sheriff´s Patrol
deputies were dispatched

to a report of a dead body

in the parking lot
of Westlake High School.

She had no purse, no I.D.,
no jewelry.

Obvious stab wounds
were visible on her chest

and on her arms.

At the time, at 1980,
there was no DNA.

Pretty much all
the investigators could do

was interview the people

that were attending
the football game nearby

and take photographs.

Later in the day,
they conducted an autopsy.

They had documented 23
physical injuries to her body,

13 of which were stab wounds.

She was three months´ pregnant.

There was evidence
of forced sexual assault.

Attempts were made at the time
to identify

Jane Doe Ventura through
fingerprints with no results.

Missing-person reports
were scanned

through several states
and no results.

And that murder
had occurred three days

after Jane Doe Kern County
was found.

♫♫

♫♫

Violet: To not know what had
happened with Shirley

was really difficult.

In 1981, when I went to look for
help from police enforcement,

we were just told, "Oh, probably
just another dead Indian."

Just another dead Indian.

That´s what I was told.

We were looked at
as if we were nothing, you know?

That´s when I learned
early on in our search

that they were not
going to help us.

I knew I had to keep
searching for Shirley.

I made a promise
to my grandmother

that I would find her
and bring her home.

Periodically over the years,
my aunt Belle and I,

as long as we had gas,
we had food,

and we had money for lodging,
we´d set off.

The trip to Vancouver
would take us 12 hours.

We never stopped overnight

because the less time
you spend in a motel,

the more time
you´ll be looking, right?

First time, you know,
there was that excitement of,

"Oh, we´ll find her.
You know, we can do this."

And after the first trip,
you know,

you start realizing like,
"Oh, my goodness."

You go into the city and you see
all these buildings

and all these people.

It was overwhelming.
It was like,

"Oh, my God,
where are we going to look?"

Who are we going to talk to?"

It is a huge city.

And how in the heck
are you gonna look into

every nook and cranny?

In Vancouver,
there´s a lot of alleys.

It was scary,

just the enormity
of what we were trying to do.

But, you know, we became more
street-pounding after a while.

And we´d always be looking

for indigenous people
on the streets.

If it was safe enough
to get out, we´d get out.

Once in a while,
there´d be Cree.

So we´d be speaking
our language to them

and asking them if they seen
Shirley or knew of her.

It was really heartbreaking
to turn around

and come back empty-handed.

No new information to share
with my grandmother.

I think that´s the one
that really gets to me.

She was the matriarch.

You know, you don´t go against
the words and the expectations

of your matriarch.

And to tell her
that we didn´t find her,

next time, you know...

you´d known
she was disappointed many times.

[ Sniffling ]

♫♫

Then...she would just shut her
lights off and sit in the dark.

And I know that she was crying.

♫♫

♫♫

Steve:
In 1980, evidence collection

was limited to tire impressions,
fingerprints.

Take a picture, write a report,

go out and talk to somebody.

Bring your handy-dandy
little notebook with you.

DNA hadn´t been invented yet.
There was no DNA.

Today we have DNA.

It´s the magic bullet

for identifying
everything and everybody.

You know,
we´re sitting here right now.

We´re dropping DNA
all over the room.

You leave, I can come in here
and vacuum all this up now

and identify you.

For me,
when I review a cold case,

if there´s anything
that is remotely DNA,

I´m gonna take the case.

You cannot dispute DNA evidence.
You just can´t.

♫♫

[ Dog barking ]

Violet: I started searching
for Shirley online

in the early 2000s.

The idea of looking
for somebody online

was new for me at that time.

In the beginning, it was more
or less just obituaries.

Just kind of scaling it down
to Soosay...

and years.

No, there was nothing
that I could ever find there.

Unless you have access
to police-enforcement websites,

you have no way of trying
to get any case files.

I don´t have that clearance.

So that one shut down
pretty quick.

Growing up, my mom
always shared stories.

Always, always, always
shared stories with us kids

about Shirley.

It´s been, like, a whole range
of emotions for my mom.

Violet: When it comes
to indigenous people,

they´re almost, like, shoved
over to the side.

You start looking
for missing persons, you know.

Most of them were
non-indigenous.

"What can I do different?

Where do I go from here?"

Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger in California

is a big backer
of the DNA databank idea.

How will it work?

Walsh: Proposition 69
in California

takes
mandatory collection

of every convicted
felon´s DNA.

There´s over
a million DNA kits

in the California database.

And in January
of next year,

they´re gonna take the DNA

of everybody arrested
for a felony.

They solve four to five
unsolved cases a day

in California because of
Governor Schwarzenegger´s bill.

Passed Proposition 69,
giving law enforcement

the state-of-the-art tools
for crack down on criminals.

This is the card
that says that

you´re giving us
your blood and saliva.

Reporter: Under California law,

all felons convicted
of violent crimes,

sexual crimes,
burglaries, carjackings

and arsons
must provide DNA samples.

Steve: We had submitted Jane Doe
Ventura´s hats, panties,

fingernails for DNA profiling.

And then we uploaded that
profile into a national database

that we call CODIS.

In 2012, a hit comes back
to Wilson Chouest.

♫♫

We´re also informed that
he´s a match to Kern County.

So we started working both cases
at the same time.

Reporter:
Back in 1980, they had the DNA,

but it wasn´t until recently
that scientists could link it

to the man they think
is responsible

for dead bodies popping up
in Southern California.

This is Mr. Wilson Chouest,
a U.S. Army veteran

discharged with heroin problems.

Steve: Wilson Chouest
is a convicted rapist.

While he´s in prison,

he´s required to provide
a DNA sample,

which is uploaded
into the DNA database.

That database hits
on the Jane Doe Kern County

and the Jane Doe Ventura case.

Wilson Chouest is our guy.
No doubt about it.

We just have to interview
Wilson Chouest

and find out what his story is.

We have a bunch of photographs

that we have downloaded
from the Internet,

photos of random people,
and we´re going, "Okay,

this rape happened
at a post office

along the 101 freeway."

And Wilson immediately says,
"I was in custody at that time."

"Okay, then you didn´t
do that one.

Well, this one happened
when you were in custody, too.

You didn´t do that one."

We´re building a rapport
with Chouest.

Then we show him the picture
of Jane Doe Ventura County.

This one happened near a parking
lot called Westlake High School

along the 101.

Wilson won´t even
look at her picture.

He says to us, "I don´t even
know where the 101 freeway is."

Wilson Chouest´s lived
his entire adult life

in the San Fernando Valley.

You cannot go from one end
of the San Fernando Valley

to the other end without driving
on the 101 freeway.

You just can´t.
So that´s a lie.

I need to get the truth.

Better, I need to get a lie.

I can prove the truth,
but I can really prove the lie.

We have the DNA.
We know who he is.

We needed Wilson to tell us
who they were,

where he got them,
and he refused to acknowledge

he had anything to do with that.

Two or three days later,
I went down to the jail

and arrested him
for the murders.

Reporter:
Mr. Chouest was arrested

for murder this morning.

Sheriff: The mainstay is to try
to identify who these women are

because
they´re someone´s sister,

possibly someone´s wife.

There´s got to be people
out there that knew them.

And we want to bring closure
to that family

and so that they understand

what happened to their mom
or their sister

or their daughter when she
didn´t come home that day.

[ Dog barking ]

Hi, Mom.

Mm-hmm. I´m just looking
at these pictures

because these are the main ones
that we have

of Auntie Shirley.

I think this one
is my favorite.

Yeah, I think that´s
everyone´s favorite.

And it was during release

from residential school
for summer,

and the girls
all took picture.

This is Auntie Shirley,
my sister Lillian,

my sister Pat.

And then, of course,
there´s my dad.

These are all
residential-school boys.

Yeah.

Violet: The residential school

was to take the Indian
out of the child,

and it started in the late
1800s right up to 1996.

So that´s, like, a whole century

of removing children
from the traditional homes.

And so there was
a great disconnect.

And you can see the hats
that they wore.

Yeah,
that´s pretty neat.

I don´t even know
what they call them,

but I remember

that they used
to wear those a lot.

The residential school
was a breeding ground

for sexual abuse,
for psychological abuse,

physical abuse.

So those are the realities
that we had to face.

A lot of them have
turned to alcoholism,

have turned to drugs.

So those residential schools --
yes, they educated us,

but they did more damage
than good for the majority.

You know, my mom died
two years ago.

She never, ever hugged
or kissed us

because she was
in residential school.

It wasn´t until she shared
that my heart opened up

and understood why she did
the things that she did.

I was in residential school,
but I was fortunate

that my father
sent me to my grandparents

to have, like, a cultural
immersion for two years

to come back to know who I was.

I still have to deal
with...memories, you know.

A lot of PTSD
from residential school.

So in raising my children,
I talk about the history.

I talk about what transpired.

But you only have
to speak the truth.

There´s been a lot
of intergenerational traumas

that have been
passed down.

Like, every day we are learning
about our own history

and our bloodlines
and what our family

and our ancestors
have gone through.

And you carry that...
forever.

And until
you become a parent

and until you become,
you know, aware

of how those things
have impacted you,

you know, is when you have
the power to change that.

And for me,
still to this day,

I struggle with
my own parenting.

But I know I´m --

I´m a really good parent
for my own children.

Mm-hmm.

Man: Hi, there.

Hi, Lily.

-Hi.
-Hi. You okay?

Yeah.

Do you want a snack
to take upstairs?

Yeah.
Okay.

Justice: Something I´ve always
been really grateful for

is my mom,
because I understand and I know

that life could have been
so different for us,

for me, for my own kids.

♫♫

[ Bird squawks ]

♫♫

Steve: After we had arrested
Wilson Chouest

for the murders of the Does,
I felt,

"Yeah, this case
is ready to be filed.

We need to take this
to the D.A."

and that´s when I met
D.A. John Barrick.

John: So I was sitting
in my office one day,

and my boss came to me and said,
"Hey, there´s this case.

The investigators really want
someone to take a look at it.

Would you mind
coming to a meeting

and listening to their pitch?"

They start off with kind of
talking about the facts

of the case, the, you know,
the crime scene itself.

There wasn´t a lot of evidence
at the crime scene.

There were no eyewitnesses
at all.

But then very early on
in the presentation,

he started talking
about the DNA,

that they were able to find
semen stains on the underpants

from the victim
in Ventura County, get a ratio,

and got a hit to Wilson Chouest.

And I just sort of put my pen
down and stopped taking notes.

And for me, I was like,
"Well, there it is."

I noticed that John had stopped
taking notes.

For me,
that was kind of troubling.

I was like,
"Oh, I´ve lost him."

When you do jury trials,
and I´ve done quite a few,

there´s -- there´s two types
of evidence that jurors

just love --
surveillance video and DNA.

And for me, if you have
either one, you take a shot.

I don´t want to play poker
against John Barrick.

And when we got all done,
he stood up and said,

"Sounds good to me.
Bring it down to my office.

I´ll file it."

I was kind of blown away.

It was during that meeting
that they mentioned

that there was another Jane Doe
from Kern County

three days earlier,
same situation --

again, rape, murdered,
unidentified.

I said,
"Well, what are the odds

you have these
two unidentified victims

in two separate counties
and their rape-murders occur

three days apart by a suspect
who´s -- who´s a known

serial rapist serving time
in prison for serial rape?"

That just seems like
a no-brainer to me.

I´m gonna take the shot
with that.

That´s how we ultimately decided
to file both cases

in Ventura County.

The trial itself
took about a month.

The evidence, for the most part,
went as planned.

Not only did we have the semen,
but you had separate DNA,

one from a beer bottle
in Kern County

and the fingernails from
the victim in Ventura County.

When you´re doing a jury trial,
you´re trying to convince

12 strangers
beyond a reasonable doubt

that what you think
the evidence shows is true.

And that can be very difficult,

just trying to get 12 people
to agree on anything.

So it´s a very stressful time
when you´re a prosecutor.

Ventura County decided
to prosecute both cases,

doubling their workload,

but giving both victims
a shot at justice.

Nearly 40 years
after the murders,

the victims got just that.

Reporter: And with that,
Wilson Chouest

was sentenced to life without
the possibility of parole.

Steve: I would have
really been shocked

if that jury had come back
not guilty on anything,

but it was like, "Well, thank
you. You know, I did my job.

You did your job.
We´re all happy.

Wilson is where
he belongs -- in prison."

John: It´s sort of foreign to
prosecutors to do a murder trial

where there is no family
for the victim in the courtroom.

And I guess the feeling is like,

"If we don´t have
that familial support,

that maybe the jury
won´t care about the case."

But I actually found that
to be quite the opposite.

Like, it made them care
even more.

Because the identity
of the victims was unknown,

they became their advocates.

It kept sinking in deeper
and deeper to me

that I have to be their family.

We have to be their family.

We have to be their voice
and see this to the end.

Doing this trial was probably

one of the most important
things I´ve done in my life.

Steve: Our true calling
is to the victim.

That´s who we´re
looking out for.

And these two women
were ignored in life

and ignored in death.

Just because
they didn´t have a name,

those women didn´t deserve
any of that.

They should be treated
just like everybody else.

Reporter: While many others may
feel their job would be done

at this point,
Rhods is different.

I really and truly feel
that we need to send them

home to their families.

It´s not over
until I can find out

who they are
and send them home.

The only regret
I have on this case

is I couldn´t call up
somebody´s mother and father

and say, "I got justice
for your daughter."

That´s my only regret.

Yeah, it´s partially achieved,

but the final achievement
is still to come,

and I´m hoping to have it soon.

♫♫

[ Indistinct conversations ]

Violet:
Unfortunately, with Shirley,

she is only one of many,
many who have been lost.

[ All singing
in native language ]

It´s almost a weekly thing
where our people are missing,

our children are missing.

We need people to care.

We need people to be made aware

that this is actually
still happening.

[ Singing in native language
continues ]

♫♫

My family is here because they
know my struggle over the years.

And so for them to be here,
they acknowledge and respect

the walk
that I have been walking.

My journey has always been

almost solitary,
walking by myself.

But now I´m joining others,
I feel like I´m not alone.

[ Singing in native language ]

Justice: With our experience,

I think, sadly,
it has taught myself

and many other indigenous women

that we basically always kind of
have to watch our back.

This is our reality and it
has been for many, many years.

I have to have these talks
with my daughter

because right now,
she´s 6 years old.

As time goes on, we´re going to
have more in-depth conversations

about reality for women,

for indigenous women
specifically.

My grandma is missing
and murdered from Vancouver.

Her name is Jean Smith,

and my auntie Marlene Currie
was also murdered in Montreal.

Woman: I´m here to honor
my cousin, Savannah Buffalo,

Late Sophie Coyote,
late Matilda.

The cases have been
closed too fast.

The last time I saw Shirley
was in 1977

at my father´s wake and funeral.

Years later,
Grandma asked us

to look for Shirley
and bring her home.

And for all the traditional
people who understand,

when you make a promise
to the old people,

you do your darndest
to make sure you fulfill

that promise
you´ve made to them.

And I carry it on.

♫♫

A lot of people don´t want
to talk about these things.

But in order to bring
their spirit back to them,

we need to acknowledge them.

We need to ensure
that we are doing our utmost

to give them a voice.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

My name is Gina Wrather,

and I am a volunteer
with the DNA Doe Project.

The DNA Doe project
was started in 2017.

We´re a nonprofit organization.

We work with
law-enforcement agencies

to identify John and Jane Does

through the use of DNA and
investigative genetic genealogy.

Reporter:
Plastered across these walls,

questions that go for dozens
of families

not knowing what happened
to missing loved ones for years,

sometimes decades.

Gina: Our founders realized
the same technology

and the same methods
that are used to identify

birth parents of adoptees
could be used to identify

these John and Jane Does.

We don´t give up on any cases,

but it doesn´t matter
if it costs 10 hours

or it costs 10,000 hours

because we all
volunteer our time.

If your DNA is out there,

could it potentially
solve a case?

Sure.

♫♫

I became a crime junkie just
watching all these programs,

listening to podcasts.

I watched them identify
the Golden State killer.

Reporter: This morning,
new details

of the rigorous investigation

that detectives say brought down
the Golden State Killer

more than 40 years after
his alleged killing spree began.

Law-enforcement sources
telling ABC News

they used a genealogy website

to help connect
Joseph DeAngelo´s DNA

to past crime scenes,
taking that evidence

and then comparing it
with family members

within the online database
until they found their suspect.

Violet: The idea that they found
this individual

who did the whole DNA thing.

Watching that program, I´m like,
"Oh, my word, here it is.

You know, here it is.
This -- this can really help."

So I did research my DNA,
our family genealogy,

and then my friend put it up
on ancestry.com.

But nobody said anything.

In 2016, I joined
the task force

for the Golden State
Killer investigation.

Genetic genealogy
is taking suspect DNA

and building the suspect´s
family tree

in an attempt to identify him
and his relatives.

When I saw the success
from identifying Joe DeAngelo

as the Golden State Killer,

I returned home and applied it
to Jane Doe Kern County.

Steve called me one day
and said,

"You know, I think maybe
we need to consider

doing genealogy DNA."

I had Jane Doe Kern,

but the part that was missing
was I didn´t have a specimen.

We had no specimens
that survived from 1980.

So I thought about it
and decided

that maybe we could try to get
a DNA specimen

from the clothing
worn at the crime scene.

It was very degraded.

But eventually,

the crime lab was able
to get something to the lab.

They were looking for volunteers
on this particular case,

and so I put my name on it.

When we originally uploaded her,
I think we had

19 visible matches,
which is minuscule,

and we were able to look
at her ethnicity right away.

She was more likely
to be indigenous

than she was to be Hispanic.

So we started looking at
the indigenous Facebook groups

and started appealing to them.

Steve: I want to put a name
on her grave.

I wanted to send her back
to her family.

That´s where she belongs.

Her family deserves to know
what became of her.

And is that obsessive?

No, I don´t think so.
It just comes with the job.

Are you
getting impatient?

I think I´ll solve it.
I just don´t know when.

It´s a difficult case.

It´s actually
rewarding for me

to watch him
do what he does.

I don´t think
anybody realizes

how serious
he takes his work

and how dedicated he is
to it.

He gets phone calls

from the time he gets home
during the night.

8:30, 9:00.

Doesn´t matter
if it´s holiday.

It doesn´t matter
if it´s a weekend.

Somebody is always
calling him,

and he´s always
answering the phone.

He sleeps it,
breathes it, everything.

He´s very dedicated
to his victims.

Two birthdays in a row
I missed

because of murder.

Mickey has always been
supportive

of everything
that I´ve done.

She does accuse me
of knowing more about crime

than I do about
household responsibilities.

But -- And she´s right.

If I had to balance
a checkbook,

I wouldn´t be able to.

♫♫

Gina: We had a breakthrough
moment in September 2019.

We had a new match at GEDmatch.

She was within
the second-cousin range

and of her great grandparents,

only one great grandparent
was indigenous.

And so we said,
"We´re on the right track here."

Once we identified
the great grandfather,

we knew he lived his entire life
in the Maskwacis area.

His children lived
their entire lives there.

His grandchildren lived
their entire lives there.

So we knew someone there
very likely knew who she was.

This case really
was a roller coaster

because at times, I felt like

"We´re just not
gonna solve this one."

There hadn´t been an indigenous
identification to date.

They´re underrepresented
in the testing databases.

They´ve had
their history erased.

And so in February 2020,

we did one more appeal in
the indigenous Facebook groups.

"We need everybody to share this

and we need everybody
to look at this face.

And we need you to consider,
you know,

if this could have been someone
that you knew in 1980."

Violet: I felt I exhausted every
avenue to find my auntie.

And so, at a woman´s
gathering in Calgary,

I informed a group of women
that I lost my aunt

and she´s been missing
since 1979.

And I made a promise
to my grandmother

that I would find her
and bring her home.

I was at the end of my rope.

Four days later, boom.
Facebook.

Oh, my God.

My friend, she said,
"Go on Facebook.

They found a woman
who is from Maskwacis."

And so I went into Facebook
and I logged on

and I´m like, "That´s her.
This is her."

Gina: I got a phone call
from Violet and she said,

"I think this is my aunt."

And as she was describing
the circumstances,

it sounded more and more likely.

The defining factor
was a DNA comparison.

And so I asked Violet
had she DNA-tested anywhere?

And she said, "Yes."

We have to have testers
to download their DNA data

to their own computer
and upload that to GEDmatch.

And that was the step
that Violet had been missing.

So she said,
"I will upload to GEDmatch."

When I was sitting in front of
the computer uploading my DNA,

that became my last-minute
dealt, you know?

Like, what if it isn´t,
you know,

versus when I first
saw the picture, right?

And I was so -- "This is her."

It was so positive.

Gina: And so walked her through.

She uploaded.

I did the 1-to-1 comparison.

[ Beeping ]

♫♫

And I said, "Violet,
this is your aunt."

It was the most emotional moment

in my entire DNA Doe
Project experience.

She didn´t say anything.

It was raw emotion.

It was -- It wasn´t words.
It was sound.

♫♫

Yeah. I felt it.

I think I lost it.

I don´t know if I screamed
or cried or laughed or whatever.

I mean, I must have
sounded insane to her,

but I have to excuse myself,
you know?

And I went into --
into my bedroom

and I screamed into my pillow
and then I came out.

[ Laughing ]

I went through so many emotions.

You know, it´s like a whole

30 years of emotions
that just came --

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom --
right after the other.

Gina: It was grief.

It was relief.

But she kept saying,
"I kept my promise.

I found you.
I kept my promise."

♫♫

♫♫

Violet: The hardest, of course,

was hearing about
how she -- she had passed.

That´s really painful.

She made it someway,
somehow to California.

I don´t know what happened.

Sad that we found her
in that way,

but glad that we´re able
to bring her home.

Reporter: Tonight, breaking news
from the sheriff´s office.

At long last, we finally know
the name of the woman

left for dead four decades ago.

A victim whose identity
was unknown

even after her killer
was sent to prison.

Shirley Soosay was finally
identified when her niece Violet

came across a post
by the DNA Doe Project.

Steve: A lot of work
has gone into a case,

a lot of late nights
to get to this goal.

And the goal was to get justice
for our victim.

When Shirley was identified,
I reached out to Violet.

It was good to talk to her.

I enjoyed knowing that she knew

that someone was
in Shirley´s corner.

That gives me a sense of, "This
is what I´m supposed to do."

Steve Rhods --
He didn´t give up her,

and I love him for that.

He has a special place
within our family.

So has Dawn Ratliff and Gina --

The DNA Doe Project.

You know, thinking I was
doing this by myself.

Little did I know
there were others

who were doing the same thing
and we just had to meet.

They were trying
to find her identity.

I was trying to find my auntie.

Knowing that I really
wasn´t alone...

...that´s so comforting.

People do care.

And my free-spirited auntie
is coming home.

♫♫

Reporter: This moment is
40 years in the making.

A tearful and joyous homecoming
for a woman who died years ago.

Her remains were brought
to a funeral home

in Wetaskiwin,
where she was met by Violet

and bikers from Maskwacis

to escort Shirley
the rest of the way home.

Now that Shirley can properly
be laid to rest,

Violet can also finally rest.

No more uncertainties.

We are certain
that she´s home now.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫