All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S04E07.The.Hillside.Stranglers.A.Pair.of.Serial.Killers.Part.1.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

♪♪

Bianchi: There was no real
discussion of a killing.

It just seems like it was
an automatic thing

that would happen.

It was always a spur
of the moment thing.

There was never
any planning beforehand.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to "Very Scary People."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Los Angeles, California,
in the 1970s

was a place
where dreams were made,

in the movie studios,
and on the beaches.

But in the fall of 1977,
over a period of four months,

the city was terrorized
by a predator,

hunting young women

and displaying their
dead bodies in public.

Despite a massive police effort
to find the killer,

the body count kept rising.

The terrifying murder spree
would go down

as one of the most
notorious in U.S. history.

This is
"The Hillside Stranglers."

♪♪

♪♪

Renner: Kristina Weckler was
a 20-year-old art student,

talented girl.

Everyone described her
as studious and quiet,

a real sweetheart.

She lived on her own,
and she and a friend,

another student
at the Art Institute,

both single women in L.A.,

they kind of made,
like, a pinky swear,

"Let's keep each other safe."

So they made a promise to each
other to be there just in case.

♪♪

And so on a Monday morning,

when Kristina didn't show up
for her class,

as she normally would,

her friend
became very, very alarmed.

This is not like Kristina
at all.

This is out of character.

♪♪

So the friend drove over
to Kristina's apartment

and found Kristina's Volkswagen
was parked in its usual spot.

So she thought, "Well, maybe
she's just sick."

She went up to Kristina's
apartment door and knocked,

and there wasn't any answer.

Now she's starting to get
really worried,

so she went and cornered
the apartment manager.

He opens the apartment.

They go in,
and everything looks normal.

Her art supplies are out.

Her bed is turned down.

There's no evidence
of any kind struggle

or any kind of violence
in the apartment.

The really eerie thing is
that Kristina is not there.

♪♪

The body of
Kristina Weckler was found.

And things got even sicker.

Renner: There were marks
of sexual assault.

She had been violently sexually
assaulted and just dumped.

There were marks on her arms,
like maybe an IV drug user.

But that didn't fit
Kristina's personality at all.

It was my understanding
that she was not a drug addict

or involved in drug activity.

♪♪

Renner: There was a knock
at her door...

[ Knocking ]

...and it was a former neighbor
of hers.

And he said, "Something's
happened to your car,

and I think you better come out
and take a look at it."

So she did.

"She was driven to a house
where she was dragged around

and tied up."

♪♪

She was injected
with a substance,

usually used to clean windows.

Which caused her to go
into violent convulsions.

♪♪

But she didn't die.

She was dragged into the
kitchen,

and a plastic bag
put over her head,

and a gas pipe put into the bag.

She's gasping for air,
the bag is going in and out

as the gas
is being pumped into it.

So in the course of however long
she was in captivity there,

she was injected
with a cleaning substance,

and she was gassed
before she was finally killed,

and it was by means of a cord
wrapped around the neck.

Death must've seemed
a mercy for her.

Kristina was just one
of the many victims

of the Hillside Stranglers.

♪♪

Some people had puncture marks.

Some had Burns on their hands.

They were tortured.

♪♪

Meredith: People were being
taken off the streets

and turning up murdered
in some very horrendous ways.

Davis: Everyone is going crazy.

Police knew they were dealing
with a real sicko out there.

Are we dealing with someone
with a medical background,

because the bodies
were all cleaned?

No one knew.

It was getting stranger
by the week.

It was extremely alarming.

And no solution to the series
of murders

appears to be in sight.

We were defenseless.

Who will be the next victim?

Where will they be found?

Will it be someone I know?

It was a crazy, crazy time.

♪♪

Renner: The 1970s in Los Angeles
was pretty much wide open.

So there were a lot of people
on the streets,

especially in Hollywood,

because there was
a lot of nightclubs there.

A lot of social activities,
a lot of concerts,

rock 'n' roll,
very laissez faire.

♪♪

It was also a much more
trusting era.

A lot of people
were hitchhiking.

Now parents don't even
let their children walk down

one block to school
without an escort.

I think it was just
a different time.

Renner: And there was still that
element of sexual revolution,

and so women were behaving
in ways

that they hadn't done
in earlier years.

Davis: I think women felt a lot
more comfortable

walking down the street,
and it was a free time.

It was a little
post-the hippie era.

It was going to the beach.

It was a party atmosphere
in Los Angeles.

It was a have-no-fear
period of time.

But it was about to be
overshadowed by tragedy.

Renner: In late 1977, bodies of
young women start turning up

around Los Angeles.

♪♪

♪♪

Davis: 19-year-old
Yolanda Washington's body

was found on the slopes
of Forest Lawn Cemetery.

A prostitute had been murdered

and dropped off naked
on a hillside.

Davis: There were ligature marks
on her and her body was cleaned.

But in a rather sad commentary,
maybe on our society,

it didn't receive
that much news coverage

because she was a prostitute,

another day,
another murder in L.A..

I became involved
in researching prostitution

as a graduate student
at UCLA,

and that's how
I met Yolanda Washington.

Yolanda Washington
was a beautiful, young

African-American woman

who was very slim and very sweet
and very endearing.

She had a 3-year-old child
at home.

She was trying hard
to get off the streets,

also working as a waitress,

and did a little bit
of prostitution work.

[ Car horn honks ]

She did a number of things
in order to support her baby.

♪♪

Her friends called me and
said, "We know who killed her."

And I said,
"Well, what happened?"

And they said, "She'd stolen
a car from her pimp,"

who was a dope dealer and had
a lot of drugs in the trunk,

and they're sure
that he had killed her,

which turned out
not to be the case.

♪♪

Meredith: Not too long after
that, there was a homicide.

It was the morning after
Halloween, November 1st, 1977.

A young girl, her body was found
posed naked

on a front lawn
of a house in an area

that doesn't have any crime,
and it's very remote.

It was just a few blocks
from the junior high school

that I had attended.

This wasn't something that
happened in our neighborhood.

Absolutely positively
unheard of.

Judith Miller, that's the one
that alarmed

and unhinged everybody.

Davis: Judy Miller went
to Hollywood High School.

She was considered
a runaway street child.

Body was face up,
and, actually,

a neighbor put a tarp
over the body

before the police even arrived

to hide it from neighborhood
school kids going to school.

Police later find a witness
who says that he saw Judy Miller

getting into a car
with a man outside

Carney's restaurant
in West Hollywood.

But that was all the guy knew,

and it didn't give investigators
much to work with.

♪♪

Meredith: Then,
several days after that,

we had a murder
in the city of Glendale.

Renner: Elissa Kastin
was a member

of a dance troupe
called the L.A. Knockers.

Davis: The L.A. Knockers
fit in with the disco scene

of dancing on roller skates,
and it was a happy period

during that time
in Southern California.

♪♪

De Reyes: Her body was found
on an embankment

near the Glendale Country Club.

Once again, raped, tortured,
rope marks on her,

body had been cleaned.

That's when it hit us.

There's a strangler out there.

♪♪

Martin: Many of the young women
are scared out of their minds.

We're young people.

We've not experienced
something like this

anywhere in our life's history.

The series of murders
was completely foreign to us.

There was all this talk about,
we all need to stick together.

Broberg: Lissa Kastin
wasn't a prostitute.

She's looked at as this
middle-class tragedy,

whereas the other victims
were portrayed

as having this
inappropriate lifestyle,

and, therefore,
I think were easier to dismiss

in terms of any patterns
of possible serial murder.

And in some ways, you could
probably argue that this is

where the turning point
happened,

where the police begin to get
pressure to form a task force.

We're starting to pay attention
a lot more to what is going on.

And then shortly thereafter,
other bodies started popping up.

And then, more and more
and more bodies, all women,

all showed up on hillsides

in fairly close proximity
to one another.

There turned out, though,
to be certain traits --

that the body
had been moved, number one.

Usually a body is found near
where they were killed.

Number two, the ligature marks.

Number three,
the cleaning of the bodies,

which was extremely unusual.

Of course, news being news
and profit being profit,

news people came up
with a scary moniker,

"The Hillside Strangler."

And it's got the residents,

particularly the women,
in a state of panic,

because nothing seems to tie
these victims together.

They haven't got a lead
on a killer.

They have no idea
what's going on.

Davis: Fear permeated the air
of Southern California

like an invisible poisonous gas.

Women were scared
for their lives.

Men were scared for their wives
and their daughters.

It was a very frightening time.

♪♪

I had been married a year.

My wife was a deputy sheriff.

She carried a gun,
and I still worried for her.

Every police officer I know
was working

was fearful for their families.

I graduated from high school
in 1977.

I went to work in retail
in the Glendale Galleria.

It was a very large
shopping mall.

By and large,
the feeling was terror.

All the employees
were required to park

in a specific section
at the mall.

That both made things easier
and a little more difficult.

So somebody studying the women
working at the mall,

they knew where they would
be transitioning

to at the start at work
and at the finish of work.

Our store mandated that
the male employees

escort the women
to and from their cars.

You look at what went on
in the U.S.

in terms of serial murder,
it was a very active time.

Jones:
Theodore Bundy was a suspect

in the sex-related murders
or disappearance

of more than 30 other women
in four states

between 1974 and 1978.

Man: Gacy was convicted of the
sex slayings of 33 young men.

The seven-year killing spree

ended with the discovery
of dozens of bodies

buried under his home
in suburban Chicago.

Broberg: It was just a scenario
where serial killing,

for whatever reason,
whether it's because

people were doing
these copycat-type of aspects

or whether it was just
the frustration

of what was going on in society,

and you have a lot of men
kind of going down

this path of serial
killing during this time.

♪♪

♪♪

Renner: Dolores Cepeda
and Sonja Johnson,

12- and 14-year-old girls,
took a bus from their home

out to the Eagle Rock Plaza
to go shopping.

Sonja, you can see that
she looks just like

on the cusp of womanhood,
just kind of getting there,

but still you can still
see that gangly kid.

And Dolores,
she's just flat out a kid.

They spent the better part
of the day out there

like teenage girls will do.

They caught the bus
to come back,

and what they didn't know
is that they were being watched,

and they were being hunted.

There was another passenger
on the bus,

and he's watching them get off
the bus in Eagle Rock area.

And he notices the girls go over
to a two-tone car,

and they sort of lean in
on the passenger side,

and they're talking to someone,
and then the bus pulls away,

and he loses sight of them.

♪♪

Dolores and Sonja weren't in
the habit of not returning home

when they said they were
gonna be home,

and so when they didn't show up,
after their shopping excursion,

their families
are really concerned,

and they're on it right away.

And they report them missing.

They put their school pictures
on flyers

that they put up
around the neighborhood.

♪♪

A week later, a 9-year-old boy

was rummaging through a
trash dump near Dodger Stadium.

Renner: He's going through
a trash heap,

and he comes on what he thinks
may be mannequins.

As he got closer, he said that
there were flies all over them,

and that's when he realized
that something was wrong.

Renner: It's Delores and Sonja
in garbage.

What really made this one hurt,
they were just 12-

and 14-year-old girls.

Renner: They were so small
and so helpless.

I mean, there's no way that
any rational reasonable person

can comprehend
that level of depravity.

I don't see how anyone of us
could do it.

♪♪

De Reyes: Once the girls were
found, police spoke to the boy

who saw them exit the bus.

Renner: He saw Dolores and Sonja
go up to a car

to the passenger side,

which led them to believe there
were two people in the car.

Reporter: And you feel it would
have had to have been

two people
to handle the two girls?

Well, certainly, because
Sonja was brought up

that she didn't get into a car
with anybody, except me.

So she must have been forced
into the car by someone.

Certainly.

Regardless of whether or not
the two girls were forced,

detectives realized
they were likely

looking for two perpetrators.

One thing that threw
all of us off

is a pair of serial killers
is almost unheard of.

Serial killers are almost
always one figure.

Serial killers do not
operate in pairs.

Broberg: It is unique, because
when you study serial killers,

we refer to those
as team killers.

According to what data we have,
I would say it's uncommon.

Meredith: There was statements
badges had been flashed

and a lot of concern.

We weren't sure
what we're looking at.

Were they impersonating cops
or were they cops?

♪♪

A lot of my girlfriends would
say, "I saw a guy in a car.

A guy tried to stop me
in a car."

Lee: Women were so scared
in Los Angeles,

and the police were so worried

that it could be
one of their own

that they issued a statement

that if a single woman
was driving in a car,

and a police officer
tried to pull them over,

that they didn't
have to pull over.

They were free to drive
to a lighted area

where they felt safe.

That I don't think's
ever been done.

As the theory circulated
that the killers might be

in law enforcement,

the daughter
of a well-known celebrity

was stopped by two men
with badges.

Actor Peter Lorre was famous
primarily in the '30s and '40s.

Catharine Lorre was a student,

and she and a friend of hers
were out in Hollywood.

We got to about
the middle of the street,

and this car came around
the corner and just cut us off.

At which point, two men
got out of the car.

Both of them were just
kind of flashing badges.

They asked Catharine
for her ID.

Lorre: In the first leaf
of the wallet

was pictures
of my father and me.

And so he started reading
down the paper,

and he got to the point at which
he saw the name "Peter Lorre."

At that point they kind of
were just hesitant.

And they said, "Well, okay, you
know, I guess that's all right."

I've done thousands of news
stories in the 30 years

that I worked in television.

The one that stuck with me
most was with Catharine Lorre,

just because how close
she came to death.

She just happened to pull
that card out

and say that she was
Peter Lorre's daughter,

and that it apparently
froze them into inaction.

Davis: They didn't want
to get involved with that

and let her go.

And now, two men had been
spotted by witnesses.

Police officers and detectives
were holding

constant news conferences

and having to put up
with reporters

shouting questions to them,
"Why can't you solve this case?"

Well, solving a crime is hard.

And no one was more frustrated
than police.

We were clueless trying
to solve this at this point.

♪♪

Even though detectives
had no leads,

they started
to notice a pattern.

Meredith: One of the things
that came up in the case is

you started looking at the way
the bodies were being dumped,

and it was actually painting
what I will call a semi-circle

or crescent
around the city of Glendale.

Reporter: Most of them found
within a seven-mile radius

of Griffith Park
and the Golden State Freeway.

My personal impression,

that it was somebody
from the city of Glendale

that was trying
to dump the bodies

outside of the city of Glendale

so that wouldn't
lead back to them.

♪♪

De Reyes: The murders
are mounting,

the public is terrified,

and police are facing tremendous
pressure to solve this case.

The stranglers became bolder
and bolder as time went on.

It was like there was
a statement being made here.

This is what we think
about women,

and this is what we think
about the city of Los Angeles.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome back to
"Very Scary People."

By late November 1977,

the bodies of seven young women
have been found,

dumped on the hillsides
of Los Angeles.

Investigators have few
if any leads.

But the media has given
the killer a name,

the Hillside Strangler.

Some witnesses report
that the crimes

seem to be
the work of more than one man,

and a terrifying theory begins
circulating that the killer,

or killers, may be posing
as members of law enforcement.

♪♪

The next body was found
at a freeway off-ramp

that I went on five days a week.

I admit, it was getting a little
close to home.

Her body was left face up.

♪♪

Jane King was the oldest victim.

She dabbled in Scientology.

She was apparently abducted
from a bus stop

outside the Scientology Center.

De Reyes: The murders
are mounting,

the public is terrified,

and police are facing tremendous
pressure to solve this case.

What was kind of unique about
this particular serial killing

versus other serial killings

I've seen is the rapid rate
of committing the murders.

It was a tremendous amount.

The LAPD is getting a lot
of heat from the public.

Everyone is going crazy,
so they formed what was called

the Hillside Strangler
Task Force.

That was the LAPD,
the Glendale police department,

and the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department.

So they could coordinate
and look at all clues

from one source.

You got to realize the county
of Los Angeles is made up

of 88 separate cities
and plus unincorporated areas.

And when these occurred,

you know, the Los Angeles
Police Department,

the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department,

the Glendale Police Department
all became extremely cooperative

and forming this task force
to come together.

And all the other agencies
in the county would provide

as much information
and support as they could to it.

In the big cities, sadly,
murders happen all the time.

Often, bodies are found,

and maybe it wasn't
the Hillside Strangler.

The police had to be extremely
careful,

as did we in the media,
to not misidentify it.

Meredith: We had a lot
of clues coming in,

a lot of different tips coming
in from all kinds of people.

You have to realize,
at that time period,

we didn't have computers
to do analysis or maintain logs.

Everything had to be
hand-written and hand-logged,

every clue,
every tip that would come in.

We didn't have access to DNA.

We couldn't just run
fingerprints

through an automated system.

Broberg: They were getting
so many calls,

they probably could not
keep up with them.

Davis: Making it even more
difficult were that the victims

were often completely
different kinds of people.

One could be a prostitute.

One could be
a straight-A student.

They were different races,
different ethnic groups,

lived in different
areas of town.

The task force couldn't work
fast enough.

♪♪

Davis: Lauren Wagner was
followed by the killers

to in front
of her own parents' house.

A neighbor saw her arguing
with two men,

and then heard her say,
"You won't get away with this."

Unfortunately, the neighbor
didn't immediately report that.

De Reyes:
Like the other victims,

Lauren Wagner had been tortured

by whoever had abducted her.

Renner: They decide to use a bit
of electrical wire,

which leaves marks on her hands.

They'd shock her.

It doesn't kill her,
it's just painful.

They're sadists.

And that's what they want to do.

And finally, not to put her
out of her misery,

they just
strangled her to death.

♪♪

Kimberly Martin was a lovely,
young 17-year-old girl,

pretty, blue-eyed, blonde hair.

Davis: She was a call girl,

and she had
taken herself off the street

because the strangler
was out there,

so she was using
an agency instead.

♪♪

It wasn't enough
to save her life.

♪♪

When the police
investigated the murder,

they learned about
an altercation

she had at a Hollywood building
the night she died.

Davis: They questioned all
the neighbors in the building,

that included a guy
named Kenneth Bianchi,

who recently moved
from Rochester, New York,

to spend time with his cousin.

When the police came to look for
the escort that never came home,

Bianchi talks to them,
jokes around and so on,

and the police fill out
the report, and we're done.

♪♪

De Reyes:
Bianchi continued to follow

every aspect
of the Hillside Strangler case,

including stories about
different suspects

questioned by police.

♪♪

Reporter:
After intensive investigation,

the Los Angeles
Police Department

finally has booked a suspect
in the Hillside Strangler case.

We have arrested a man
by the name of Ned T. York,

male Caucasian.

Chambers: Assistant Chief
Daryl Gates met with newsmen

shortly after the suspect
was booked today,

and said York had made certain
statements implicating himself.

If police had the right guy,
the entire city of Los Angeles

could take a collective
sigh of relief.

The question is, is Ned York
the Hillside Strangler?

♪♪

De Reyes: In a story so typical
of Hollywood,

a small-time actor
named Ned York

said he might be
the Hillside Strangler.

And he just comes
out of nowhere.

And the task force is hoping

they can finally
put people's fears to rest.

But those hopes started
to fade pretty quickly.

When they first started
questioning him,

he was rambling incoherently.

They weren't sure whether
it was drugs or what.

Finally, during the questioning,
he fell asleep.

Last we heard,
he was still asleep.

♪♪

Davis: It turns out Ned York
said he was on angel dust

when he approached police.

In fact, he had nothing to do
with the hillside stranglings.

Police had no choice
but to release him from custody.

Sometimes there are
false confessors,

that's another feature
of crimes like this.

The police in Los Angeles
seem to be back

where they started in
the Hillside Strangler case.

Sternoff: There are 55 officers
that work full time

on the series of murders,
and they would welcome a break.

We'll always accept
a lucky break

and be very appreciative of it.

A lucky break helps you
crack them sooner.

We'll keep at it
until it is cracked.

Davis: Suddenly, the killings
appeared to stop.

We went through Christmas,
Valentine's day.

Those of us in the media thought
that maybe two things happened.

Either the monster
discovered a conscience

or maybe he met
the same fate as his victims.

♪♪

Then, right after
Valentine's day,

a helicopter spotted
an orange Datsun

off of Angeles crest highway,
north of Los Angeles.

Reporter: The victim was found
in the trunk of her new car

50 feet down a steep hillside.

Davis: When they went down
to pull it up,

they found the body
of Cindy Hudspeth in the trunk.

In Los Angeles, another young
women strangled in the hills,

a 20-year-old bank clerk
who taught Bible classes

and wanted to be an actress.

Police were particularly curious
as to how Cindy's body

ended up
in such a remote location.

Meredith: Her car was up
on Angeles Crest Highway,

which goes up in
the Angeles National Forest,

and to drive a car up there,

you're gonna need
a second vehicle

to drive away from there.

So somebody would have
to follow you up

and pick you up
and take you away.

Davis: Since Hudspeth's car
was pushed over a cliff,

it indicated once again

that more than one strangler
was involved.

De Reyes: Now investigators were
more certain than ever that

they were
looking for two killers.

They also noticed
a strange connection

between Cindy Hudspeth
and another victim.

Wilson: Investigators are
greatly interested in the fact

that this victim lived
just across the street

from victim number seven,
20-year-old Kristina Weckler.

Meredith: Cindy Hudspeth
was actually related

to one of my officers,

and that, you know, also becomes
a thing is that.

We've not solved it.

We haven't got closure
even for him.

I mean, we went through
10 murders

and had no leads
that we could really go back

and say that we got probable
cause to arrest somebody.

Reporter: Los Angeles
Sheriff's Investigators

have found a witness
who saw Cindy Hudspeth

driving north
on Glendale Boulevard

in Glendale.

Meredith: Cindy Hudspeth
was last seen

on Colorado and Glendale Avenue

at that intersection.

We were handing out flyers
to passing motorists,

trying to get clues
about the time of night

she went through there,

seeing if anybody
recognized anything,

not knowing that
a block and a half away

from where we were standing

was where all these murders
were occurring.

It became like,
what are we looking for?

We really don't know.

You and your team, follow up
on this clue

or follow up on that clue,
most of which were just tips

that would amount
to nothing in the end.

♪♪

I had the only video camera
in the department,

so they would say, "Hey go out
and video this crime scene."

Probably the one that was
the premiere one

was Richard Reynolds.

Richard Reynolds was known to
the Glendale Police Department,

the Los Angeles
Police Department,

and the L.A. County
Sheriff's Department

as a registered sex offender.

Reporter: Baker said that
Reynolds was in a nearby bar

just 20 minutes before he and
29-year-old Roxanne Barnwell

were found shot to death
in her car

behind
Glendale Community Hospital.

Baker says there's evidence

that Reynolds was waiting
for his victim

and forced his way into her car,

attacker and victim then
shooting each other to death.

Geographically, the location
of this very unusual incident

raised a lot of suspicions.

Reporter: The Hillside Strangler
Task Force was called in

after Glendale Police
found a pattern.

Reynolds and the Barnwell woman
were killed

just a block and a half
from where two victims

of the Hillside Strangler
had lived.

Kristina Weckler
and Cindy Lee Hudspeth

lived across Garfield Avenue
from one another,

and Barnwell lived
a block away from them.

Then police noted that Reynolds'
home in La Crescenta

is just two blocks away
from the spot

where Judith Ann Miller's body
was found October 31st.

That made police
particularly suspicious.

We thought this must be
the Hillside Strangler.

Why else would a man
shoot a woman

and a woman shoot a man
in that particular area?

Man: The house is being checked.

This is part of a routine
investigation

to determine whether he is
or is not he is a suspect.

At the conclusion of what I can
call a very thorough search

of the residence,
officers were unable,

and I emphasize,
unable to readily identify

anything to connect Mr. Reynolds

to the hillside
strangler murders.

Turned out he was not related
to the case at all.

Burkhalter: How long does a case
like this remain open?

Ed Henderson says...

Forever.

How about yourself?
How long will you be on it?

Well, I won't be here forever,
I know that.

But I'll be on the case
until it's solved or I retire.

♪♪

♪♪

Meredith: One of the interesting
things that occurred

after Cindy Hudspeth
was found was,

the murders stopped,
they completely stopped.

Renner: People don't know
whether to breathe

a sigh of relief

or be even more wary.

Is the killer taking a break?

What is going on?

That makes everybody uneasy.

From a law enforcement
standpoint,

we look at why did they stop?

Is a person in custody
and we're not aware of it?

Did they die?

We don't have closure.

♪♪

Bellingham's a beautiful spot,
right on Puget Sound,

very nice community.

Definitely a safe place to live.

But in January 1979,
that would all change.

McEachran: Bellingham
was very concerned

about these two young women --

Karen Mandic,
Diane Wilder --

who were missing.

Reporter:
The two women were roommates.

Both attended
Western Washington University.

The first hint
of their disappearance

came late Thursday,

when Karen Mandic failed to
return to the local Fred Meyer

from her dinner break.

McEachran:
The one girl, Karen Mandic,

was working at
Fred Meyer's store,

which is a large department
food store in Bellingham.

Karen asked her manager if she
could take a long dinner break,

because she had
a job opportunity that came up.

She told her manager
she was going to take

from 7:00 to 9:00,
that she had a security job

and was going to be making
quite a bit of money.

And she was gonna
come back in two hours.

De Reyes: Karen found out about
the security job

from a former Fred Meyer's
employee.

He said, "Hey, you know,

I'm in the private
security business now,

and I've got this
great gig for you."

McEachran: He indicated they
were putting a security alarm

in this house.

And the house had some
very valuable things,

and they needed to have
security for two hours.

If you want to just house-sit
for a little bit,

you can make 100 bucks.

McEachran: And she asked if
her roommate could be involved,

Diane Wilder.

Renner: It's nine o'clock, Karen
doesn't come back to the store

from her dinner break.

This is not like her at all.

She is very, very responsible.

So the police get called
when she doesn't turn up.

What the hell happened to her?

McEachran: The police put out
the vehicle description,

which was a Mercury Bobcat,

and asked people
in the community

to be aware of this vehicle,
and if they saw it to call

the Bellingham Police
immediately.

Renner: They really, at this
point, need to get over

to her apartment, check it out,
see if there's anything going on

that explains why
she didn't go back to work.

McEachran: There was a note
there that indicated "Ken B.

called, wants a call back,"
and there was a phone number.

Renner:
It's in Diane's handwriting.

De Reyes: Investigators had
called the security company

and found out a man by the name
of Kenneth Bianchi worked there.

He had also previously
worked at Fred Meyer.

Renner: "Did he, by any chance,
have a job tonight?"

"No. No, he wasn't supposed
to be working at all."

So that's when they decide,
uh-oh,

and that's when they start
looking into Ken Bianchi.

Davis: Ken had recently moved
to the area

and was living with
his girlfriend, Kelli Boyd,

and their infant son.

McEachran: So they met him
at about 2:30 that morning.

He tried to present himself as
a very likable, affable person.

He at first denied
knowing Karen Mandic.

And then he said, well,
he did remember meeting her

at one point,
so they were concerned about him

and whether he was
being honest to them.

Then at about 4:30
that afternoon,

a car had been sighted.

Police responded,

and the officer
could look into the vehicle

and could see that
there were two bodies,

and he could tell that both of
the young women looked deceased.

♪♪

Reporter: The bodies of
Karen Mandic and Diane Wilder

were found stuffed in the
back seat of Ms. Mandic's car.

McEachran: The bodies were very
carefully removed,

and the evidence was preserved,

and the bodies were then
taken to a funeral home

where autopsies were conducted
that morning.

There were large ligature marks

on the necks
of both of the girls,

and this looked like
it was a rope.

It wasn't a wire,
it was something wider,

which would indicate
they were strangled.

Reporter: The women were killed
only hours

after the disappearance.

McEachran: This just was
a very alarming case,

because Bellingham's
a very safe place.

These were two young
college girls.

And it really concerned
everyone in the community.

It is something
that we just did not

have a great deal
of background with.

♪♪

I started getting
search warrants.

And in Bianchi's apartment
we found a piece of paper

with Karen Mandic's name on it,

which really contradicted
what he said,

that he just knew her
in passing.

That just wasn't the case.

We also found a number of items

that had been stolen
from Fred Meyer's.

And so I have only 72 hours
to charge someone

with a crime
when we're holding them,

so I charge him with possession
of stolen property.

Reporter: Charging the suspect

with possession
of stolen property

this afternoon buys authorities
some time

to complete
their investigation.

Wilson: Police have not charged
Bianchi with the murders,

but they say they believe

they have evidence
linking him to the killings.

At the crime scene, it looked
like the entire home

had been wiped down.

McEachran: There were not
fingerprints on areas

that you would expect
to find fingerprints

from people living in a home.

They also found a pubic hair,

when they lifted Diane Wilder's
body out of the car,

that was on her clothing
that matched, microscopically,

the characteristics
of pubic hair for Mr. Bianchi.

Hair isn't a positive
identification.

It's not like fingerprints.

We didn't have DNA
in those days.

But it certainly is enough
to get you closer and closer.

The evidence was sent
to the FBI Laboratory

in Washington, D.C..

The investigation
is proceeding rapidly.

The FBI is proceeding very
rapidly with our examination.

Once the FBI gave us
the further facts,

tying Bianchi with the girls,

we were starting to really get
the full picture

of exactly what
was going on here.

And I subsequently amended
the information

that I charged him with,
possession of stolen property,

to two counts
of first degree murder.

♪♪

Davis: To say
that Kenneth Bianchi

had a troubled childhood
is putting it mildly.

He is an individual who wants
to be dominant and in control,

and he wants to see other people
as submissive,

submissive to him.

On the surface, though,
Bianchi could appear normal.

You keep saying
I killed those girls.

I didn't.

He had said a number of times

that the real killer
is still there.

I'm the one
who's getting the blame.

The defense attorney claimed
that Mr. Bianchi

was a multiple personality.

Man: What's your name?

Steve.

The name, Stephen Walker,
was a name that interested us.

Up here in Bellingham,
what did Steve do up here?

Right from the jump,
it was a bad performance.

While he was supposedly
under hypnosis,

"Steve" mentioned his cousin.

Has he killed anybody?

Yeah.

How many?
He has.

Five girls.

And we all are thinking, this is
probably the second strangler.

♪♪

The arrest of Kenneth Bianchi

for the murders
of two young women

in Bellingham, Washington,
at first,

appears to be
an isolated incident.

But very quickly,
detectives realize the case

is much bigger than it seems.

Could Bianchi and
the Washington killings

be tied
to something more sinister?

A shocking confession
in part two of

"The Hillside Stranglers."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Goodnight.