All language subtitles for Dont.Open.The.Door.S01E06.Angel.Of.Death.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track4_[eng]

- Mary Weaver
reported that her father

had been missing
for quite some time.

- He hasn't filled prescriptions,
he's nowhere to be found -

essentially zero signs of life, whatsoever.

MAN: You can't get away with murder
just because you

successfully dispose
of the victim's body.

When you follow the money,
money doesn't lie.

- Everything that Gerald owned -
including his bank accounts,

pension, home, everything -
had been transferred.

There is a strong belief
that Gerald has been killed.

Any document signed
was likely a forgery.

MAN: The family were pretty shocked
to learn what they were learning.

MAN: No family members had talked
to him. He's not spending any money.

- When Gerald Rabourn
opened the door,

he had no idea what a predator
he was letting into his home.

(eerie music)

- Rancho Bernardo

is a retirement community, mostly.

It's a suburb of San Diego

located about 20 miles
northeast of downtown.

It's a pretty idyllic,
really nice community.

MAN: Rancho Bernardo is known for
golf courses, very good climate,

pretty much a senior community.

Rancho Bernardo is known
as definitely a safe community.

- There is, unfortunately, a certain
breed of criminal offender

who prefers to target the elderly,

knowing that the elderly
maybe have cognitive issues,

that they're lonely,
they're often trustworthy.

MAN: On February 17th, 2011, the
San Diego Police Department

received a telephone call
from Mary Weaver from Kansas

who wanted to file a missing
person's report

related to her father
Gerald Rabourn.

Her father, a Rancho
Bernardo resident,

had been missing
for quite some time.

- It had been four months
since she had talked to him,

and she was becoming increasingly
concerned about his welfare.

Every single year
since she was little,

he had always sent her
a birthday card.

And this was the first time
she never received a card.

MITCHELL:
Mary told that officer at that time

she suspected that...
he was the victim of some foul play.

Mary Weaver provided a little bit
of background information

on her father, the fact that he had
lived with his wife, Carolyn,

at their home in Rancho Bernardo.

Gerald had always been
very much a tennis player,

a fitness addict, takes lots
of vitamins, lots of supplements.

He had been a map maker
for over 30 years

and retired from that profession.

And he owned his own home there
without any mortgage on it.

So, he had done pretty well
for himself.

Carolyn, prior to September of 2010,

had been suffering from lung cancer

and was in the final stages
by the end of September 2010.

- So, early in September of 2010,

the Rabourns decided to hire
a woman from an agency,

a hospice person
by the name of Denise Goodwin.

Denise only worked for the Rabourns
for about two weeks

before Carolyn passed away.

Gerald had Denise's support,
helping him in his time of need

through the trauma and so forth
of losing his spouse.

Mary said that the plan
was when Carolyn passed away,

Gerald would sell his home

and then move back in
with his daughter in Kansas.

- Mary had already had
a room set up for him

and he was all in agreement
that that should happen.

But shortly after Carolyn passed
away, he abruptly changed the plans,

much to Mary
and other family members' surprise.

- He liked living in San Diego.
Obviously, the weather in Kansas

is different than the weather
in San Diego.

He liked being outdoors.

They agreed to talk
at least once a week.

Mary was going to come to San Diego
and visit with him.

That was the plan. And then in early
October, he told her not to come.

That he was having Denise
help him with all of his affairs.

So, he didn't really need
any of Mary's help.

The last conversation
that she had had with him

was he potentially might stay
with Denise Goodwin.

- That was the last time
she ever spoke to him.

(rings)

MCEWEN: After October 19th,
Mary could not get a hold of him.

Denise began to field his calls
on his cell phone,

but would basically make excuses
that he couldn't come to the phone.

- One of the first steps in any
missing person's investigation,

particularly when foul play
is suspected,

is to put together a timeline.

That is really thwarted

when you're dealing with someone
who is isolated,

who doesn't have
a consistent routine,

who doesn't have
a consistent group of peers

who police can gather
that type of intelligence from.

- Mary had said that Gerald
was 88 years old, about 5'7",

110 pounds at the time,

but also that he was very trusting.

In addition, Mary Weaver
recounted that earlier in the month

she had been contacted
by a social worker

regarding a complaint
that she was following up on

regarding Gerald's welfare.

- A neighbour got concerned

and he initiated a process

by which Adult Protective Services
made an inquiry.

They knocked on the door and
Denise Goodwin answered the door.

They asked to see Gerald Rabourn.

And first, Denise Goodwin refused
saying that he was sleeping,

but when they insisted,
she called him over

and he was fully dressed, as if
they were getting ready to go out.

And she spoke to Gerald
through the door

and Gerald pretty much assured them
that everything was fine.

- He didn't want their contact
or want them involved in his life.

A few weeks after the last time Mary
Weaver had spoke to her father,

she received a voicemail message
from a woman

identifying herself as Carmen,
informing her,

"Gerald and I have gotten married.

We moved to Las Vegas.
We need some time on our own.

Please do not contact us
until after the holidays."

Both Mary
and the rest of the family...

...thought things were getting
very, very strange.

(rings)

- Mary did call Denise and
Denise gave a description of Carmen,

that she was a Hispanic female;

that they had initially gone
to San Felipe, Mexico,

which is just south of the border,
several hours from San Diego;

and that, after a vacation
of three weeks there,

that they would go and live at
Carmen's residence in Las Vegas.

Obviously, the story about getting
married sounded extremely odd,

but also somewhat believable because
he did like to go to Las Vegas.

You know, it actually is not
that uncommon for elderly people,

especially seniors of Gerald's age,

that just want the companionship.

And so, it wasn't
a complete shock to the family

that Gerald would find somebody else
to spend time with.

And so, they had questions,
but it was enough

to dissuade the family from
pestering Denise about where he was.

It's what dissuaded the reporting
of Gerald going missing.

- They tried to abide by what
they thought were Gerald's wishes.

MCEWEN: But Mary,
she still didn't stop worrying.

There were still some
little red flags

lingering in the back of her mind.

When she didn't get
the birthday card

she had to know
what happened with her dad.

The Adult Protective Services

advised her to file
a missing person's report.

The missing persons' detectives
went and spoke with Denise.

Denise's initial story
was the same -

that he'd gotten married
to this woman named Carmen.

Denise did not know
Carmen's last name.

She gave the physical description
of being an Hispanic female.

That they were going to San Felipe,
Mexico, and then move to Las Vegas.

MITCHELL: She tells them that he
doesn't want to speak to his family.

He's happy now. He's with Carmen.

MCEWEN: If it turned out to be true

that Gerald didn't want contact with
his daughter, we'd respect that.

But we, as law enforcement,

have to talk to the person
that's been identified as missing.

And we won't stop investigating
until we do.

So, as the investigation began, we
started looking for signs of life.

(rings)

MCEWEN: Denise gave Gerald's
phone number to the detective.

Over the next couple days,

the detectives
left several messages on the phone

and did not receive any callbacks.

On October 21st,
Gerald had a dental appointment,

and someone called the dental office

and cancelled
that dentist's appointment.

Also, Gerald had had
some minor surgery

and there was a follow-up
doctor's appointment.

That appointment had been cancelled.

then we checked on his prescriptions
and we began to realise

that, after October 21st,
there were no signs of life.

Gerald basically
completely disappeared.

MCEWEN: So,
as we continue the investigation

we start to look into
Gerald's finances.

We determined
through debit card transactions

that the activity moved
from the Rancho Bernardo area

to the Valley Center area.

I was assigned to the case
as a forensic accountant.

Most law-enforcement agencies

don't have forensic accounting
experts that work as detectives.

I'm both.

The key is finding the evidence
and knowing where to look.

If you can't find the evidence
you'll never get a conviction.

The Valley Center location
was important

because that's where
Denise Goodwin lived.

And she was claiming
that Gerald was not there,

so we began to develop
enough probable cause

to execute a search warrant

at Denise's residence and property
in Valley Center.

- The San Diego Police Department
investigators

went out to the Valley Center home
of Denise Goodwin.

MCEWEN: The Valley Center area
is a rural area

located in the very northern end
of San Diego County.

Denise actually lived on a compound
with her mother, her son,

and her former husband.

All lived on the property together.

There was a corral there.
She was into horses.

Denise said that Gerald
had not been there.

- He's in Mexico.
He wants to be left alone.

- Denise said that she was helping
him with the sale of the house

and there were some repairs
that had to be done to the house,

so she had permission
to spend some of Gerald's money

while Gerald was out of town.

- She indicated at some point that
she had sent money to him in Mexico,

which is what led the detectives to
ask for the address she sent it to.

MCEWEN: She said she wasn't allowed
to disclose where Gerald was at.

And that's when detectives told her,
"We have to verify his welfare."

And that's when Denise provided
an address in San Felipe, Mexico.

- I think they knew pretty soon

during their conversations
with Denise

that they were not
getting the full story

and that they knew that there was
more to this case at that point.

- As we got into the case,

the whole concept that Gerald wasn't
involved in the sale of the house,

didn't make any sense. It didn't
match Gerald's normal behaviour.

- Both Mary
and the other family members

described him as someone
who watched his money like a hawk.

MCEWEN: Gerald was the kind of
person that he was a bit stubborn.

That's why he took care of all
of his own financial affairs.

And what we discovered is that
Gerald had moved his primary banking

from a personal account

into a joint account
with Denise Goodwin.

This was authorised by Gerald.

His signatures on the documents
and so forth.

- As soon as investigators determine
that money is the motive,

they need to follow the money.

In any case where you've got
the convoluted movement of money,

forensic analysts
are of critical importance

because they're able to determine
able to make sense of this,

and provide
an informed determination

as to who's likely benefitting
from all this movement.

They've seen this before.
They have the skill set

to be able to get to the bottom of

what's likely been designed to fool
your typical fraud investigator.

The biggest red flag
for investigators comes when

they realise
that cheques are being drawn

by a person who's missing,

someone who hasn't been seen
or heard from,

and who isn't making withdrawals.
They're not on an island somewhere.

They're actually still writing
cheques to third parties.

This development for investigators
leads them to believe

that they're dealing with foul play.

- That caused them
to want to speak with the son

to figure out
why he was getting that money,

and obviously to discover

if there's a reason
he should be considered a suspect.

- We find out that there's cheques
being written to Carolyn's son,

and so we contact him
for an interview

to find out
what the cheques were for.

Carolyn and Gerald,
they had been married for 25 years.

It was a second marriage and they
each had kids from prior marriage.

So, essentially,
they wanted their estates

to go to their respective children.

Carolyn's son, Reid, told us
that he had come down to San Diego

to pick up his mother's property.

He was interested
in getting her paintings,

and then also
he was the trustee over her trust.

- Soon after his mother passed away,

he checked on the bank records
online from Colorado,

and he could see that the account
had been depleted.

- When Reid called the bank,

the teller told him
that the account had been closed,

and that his mother had personally
called in, called the bank,

and made the transfer from
her account into Gerald's account

on September 28th.

But Reid said that would've been
impossible because on the 28th,

Carolyn had already
slipped into a coma.

Then she died the following day.

So, it would've been impossible
for her to initiate that transfer.

Reid's initial reaction was he
believed Gerald had taken the money.

That he had initiated the transfer.

He tries to contact Gerald and then,
when he gets no answer,

he drove to San Diego from Colorado

and went to the house and
essentially demanded to see Gerald.

He wasn't there,
and the locks have been changed,

and Denise answers the door
and says that he had gone to Mexico.

Reid goes into the house,
he notices the house is in disarray.

His mother's paintings
are now in the garage.

He explains he's upset
because there were two trusts

and that Gerald had no right
to access his mother's account

and had no right to that money.

Denise says
she emptied Carolyn's account

and put it into the joint account
that she had opened with Gerald

because she was helping
Gerald with his finances,

basically as a trustee
over his estate.

And that's when he explains that
this money belongs to his mother,

it doesn't belong to Gerald,
and he wants the money back.

At that point,
Denise takes him to the garage

where the paintings were located.

And he was surprised that his...

he felt his mother's paintings
had been mistreated.

Reid basically demands
to have his mother's paintings.

He says that, you know,
he's going to sue.

- He was irate. He told her what
she had done was improper, unlawful,

and made it quite clear that,

without that money coming to him
almost immediately

he'd be going to the authorities.

MCEWEN: And so, Denise ends up
writing him two cheques

for a total of $28,000

to repay the money that had been
taken out of Carolyn's account.

Once we had contacted
Gerald's stepson,

we were able to eliminate him

as being involved
in Gerald's disappearance.

They locate the address
that Denise had given them

and they start to interview
the people around there.

No-one by the name of Gerald Rabourn
had been there.

There is a photographic record
of all the licence plates

that go south
at the border crossing.

And so we did a search
for the licence plates.

We could not locate that Gerald
had crossed into Mexico.

We checked records
in San Diego County.

There was no marriage between Gerald
Rabourn and someone named Carmen.

We had emergency warrants
for Gerald's cell phone

and the numbers he was calling.

We found no evidence of any person
named Carmen in his life.

We couldn't verify a single thing
that Denise told us.

And, based on that,
that's what the investigation

really began to focus
on Denise Goodwin.

- We did as much analysis of it
as the investigators could,

to discover who this person
could have been.

Was it Denise Goodwin
disguising her voice?

They concluded that it wasn't
Denise Goodwin that made that call.

The investigators
from San Diego Police Department

contacted the San Diego
County District Attorney's office

who had a real-estate fraud
and economic crimes division.

MCEWEN: What we discovered
is Denise was a co-signer

on the sales documents
of Gerald's home.

And it turned out that the house
had already been sold

and they didn't know
where the proceeds were.

MITCHELL: Detectives went there
and spoke to the new owners.

The house had been remodelled,
so there wasn't even anything

for them to even go in and look at.

- We also determined that Denise

had disposed of all of Gerald's
clothing from his house,

all of his furniture.

So, she essentially emptied the
house of everything that he owned.

After Carolyn's passing, Denise
and Gerald went to an attorney

and the alternate trustee was
changed from Mary, his daughter,

to Denise Goodwin.

So, Denise used the trust documents,
as trustee, to sell the house.

Mary was not involved.
She didn't get any proceeds.

At this point in the investigation,

we determined that everything
that Gerald owned -

including his bank accounts,
pension, home, everything -

had been transferred
to this caregiver Denise Goodwin.

And Gerald Rabourn
is nowhere to be found.

Denise portrayed herself
as being Gerald's angel

yet, within a matter of weeks,
she had control over the house,

she had control over
all of his bank accounts,

and she had control
over his pensions.

She had completely taken over
all of his assets.

And then Gerald disappeared.

MCEWEN: At this point, it's been
six months after Gerald disappeared.

No family members have talked to him
and he's not spending any money.

Essentially there's zero
signs of life whatsoever.

And there is a strong belief
that Gerald has been killed

and that we were now
working a homicide case

and not just a fraud case.

MITCHELL:
The family were pretty shocked

to learn what they were learning.

Mary especially, I think,

had known all along
something bad had happened,

but just didn't
want to admit it to herself.

ARNTFIELD: The breed of criminal
who prefers to target the elderly,

they're often fraudsters.

But within that subtype of offender,

there's also a more sinister variety

that's prepared to take
that embezzlement

or that swindle to the next level

and actually use it as the starting
point for something far darker.

- At this point we begin to believe
that it's unlikely

that we're gonna find
Gerald's remains.

So, it was fortunate for us

that Bill Mitchell
was assigned to the case.

Bill Mitchell is what we refer
to as the top

no-body homicide investigator
in the state of California.

- A no-body murder case
is just what it sounds like.

It's a case in which the victim's
body has never been recovered

and a murder charge has been filed
to initiate a criminal prosecution.

So, it becomes very much
a circumstantial evidence case.

How was the victim killed
and when was the victim killed?

They're rare,
far and few between.

They are much more difficult
to prosecute.

You're missing crime-scene evidence,
trace evidence.

You're missing fingerprints.
You're obviously missing everything

that that would tell you
regarding connection

to the suspected perpetrator.

The chances of getting away
with murder rise astronomically

if you can successfully
dispose of the victim's body.

We suspected this was technically
a murder for financial gain.

When you follow the money,
money doesn't lie.

Detectives recover documents
that showed that Gerald Rabourn

wasn't Denise Goodwin's
first financial victim.

She had already done
pretty much the same thing

with a person by the name
of Seward Norris.

As the caregiver, she had access
to financial documents

like the checking account
that he had had with his ex-wife.

Denise was able to get herself

added on in place of the ex-wife
to that account

and surrendered one of his
life insurance policies.

- She had taken, I'd say something
like $420,000 from that estate.

- When Seward Norris
passed away in June,

Denise Goodwin at that time
went looking for another victim,

and her initial quest for a victim

led her to get on
two senior dating websites.

Her handle was "DaddyMeUp"

and said she was looking
for elderly men.

And she did get some contact
back and forth,

but we never had any evidence

that she actually connected
with any of them.

By the end of summer of 2010,

now into August of 2010,

she started applying
for a position as a care worker.

She went looking
for specifically hospice care

where people are close to death.

She falsified
some educational credentials

by using her mother's certificates,

and actually got her mother to give
her a raving review as a caregiver.

And she was able
to land a job at an agency,

and her first assignment
was the Rabourns.

Gerald Rabourn, he opened the door.

He had no idea what a predator
he was letting into his home.

- Denise had a very elaborate ruse

with this fake
home-care-worker routine.

A home care worker, somebody who is
providing assisted living services,

isn't going to be the intuitive
suspect for a crime like this.

- Gerald confided in her,
he wanted her help.

In fact, he called her
his little angel,

coming and helping him
in his time of need.

MITCHELL: In this case, there's
no evidence of a crime scene...

...and there's no evidence
of the victim's body.

But there also is no evidence,

other than Denise Goodwin's say-so,
that he's still alive, so...

They never gave up looking
for Gerald Rabourn's body.

The investigators checked with
all of the coroners' offices

all over the southwest.

On April 29th, Mary Weaver
received a very strange phone call

where that person was
trying to pretend to be her father,

saying things like,
"Sweetie Pie and I are travelling.

I don't want to move
to Kansas City."

The phone call, I think,
caused her quite a bit of panic.

- Immediately Mary recognises
that this is not her father.

You're the daughter of this man
who's disappeared

and all of a sudden you receive
a phone call from somebody

who identifies himself as her father

and you're being told that,
"I'm fine, leave me alone."

That just didn't sit well
with her at all.

- The investigators knew that Denise
Goodwin was probably responsible,

they just didn't know
if it was her alone

or was she working
with other people?

Mary,
when that phone call terminated,

contacted the San Diego police
detectives, informed them of it.

What they were able to do is get
the phone number that it came from,

from Mary Weaver's phone.

And they discovered
that it was a prepaid TracFone

that you can buy
at a convenience store,

that had been purchased in Arizona.

When they got the phone records,

there was one other number
that had been called by that phone,

and he was someone associated
with a property

that was now owned
by Denise Goodwin.

- We find out that Denise took some
of the money

that had taken from Rabourn estate

and purchased a condominium
in Escondido.

Denise met these individuals
at church. They were homeless.

And so, she essentially
made a deal with them.

The agreement was that she would
give them a home, a place to live,

with discounted rent, in exchange
for work on these rental properties

that she was
in the process of buying.

When we interviewed the couple

we found out that Carmen
was a fabrication made up by Denise,

and that the actual phone call
was made by Jocelyn.

Jocelyn gave us a detailed account
of the Carmen phone call.

Denise had brought a phone
in a paper bag

and explained that Gerald didn't
want his family contacting him

or his new girlfriend or wife.

- Denise Goodwin
explained to her at that time

that she had to get the family,
Gerald's family, off of his back.

So, Mrs Gavino told us
that she thought

she was assisting Gerald Rabourn
through Denise Goodwin.

She made that phone call cos Denise
Goodwin promised to give her $20.

- They rehearsed what she was going
to say on the call numerous times

before actually picking up Gerald's
phone and making the call.

So, this turned out to be
a break in the case

because now we knew that
Carmen was a fabrication.

- When it was over,
the way Denise handled the phone,

indicated to investigators
that she had pretty much

wiped the phone clean of her DNA, fingerprints.

- Immediately after this phone call,

we were able to track GPS
that Denise drove to Las Vegas

where she discarded the phone.

Trent became concerned

because he didn't know anything
about Gerald's disappearance,

and all of a sudden he was
in the middle of an investigation.

But when they realised that Denise
likely killed Gerald Rabourn,

that's when they told us
the whole story.

And, based on those conversations,

we were able to eliminate them
as suspects.

- In a case where you have
both cell-phone evidence

and third-party
financial institution evidence,

this is really where police can
dig in and put a timeline together.

Much like any crime
involving a mobile phone

will necessitate that investigators

get the co-operation
of the cellular provider,

any financial crime,
the same rules apply.

Every transaction,
every login to a banking app,

every telephone call,
ATM transaction,

it's all tracked
and is available for police.

- We had very clear evidence
that Denise Goodwin

had completely duped Gerald

into believing that she was there
looking out for his best interest.

That was the furthest thing
from the truth.

Even while Gerald's wife, Carolyn,
lay dying in the other room,

she convinced Gerald
that she could help him

with his financial accounts,

and the two of them together
called up his bank,

with Denise Goodwin
pretending to be Carolyn,

even using, or trying to use,
a fake accent.

One of the final ones
in December of 2010

was really damning evidence

because she's basically cackling

about how she has to cash out
all the accounts,

and laughing and saying, "You know
how it is when somebody dies,

you have to pay all the bills."

Denise eventually cleaned
that account out in December

and received well over $100,000

cashing out all of
the Rabourn stocks and ETFs.

In my mind,
she wasn't going to walk away.

In order to get justice and
restitution for the victim's family,

we had to go forward
with a murder case.

- When Denise Goodwin
came to work for Gerald Rabourn,

I don't think he had any clue
who he opened his door to

and what she was bringing
into his home.

He believed that this Denise Goodwin

was there to help him,
looking out for his best interests.

- Carolyn had been in hospice care
for five years and, all of a sudden,

Denise Goodwin comes in the door
and she's dead two weeks later.

- Once Carolyn died,
Denise Goodwin quit her job,

making a false story to her employer

that she was going to care
for a sick relative

and telling Gerald
that she's going to work for free.

She was going to take care of him
and do things for him.

He had no clue.

Had no clue probably up
until the 21st October.

- By now we had enough probable
cause to get a search warrant

to search Denise's property

for everything to do
with Gerald's estate.

Denise, she's terrified.
She actually has a meltdown.

And we can hear her former husband
try to comfort her

and say that they're just
looking for financial crimes.

The search warrant included
the ability to search for a body

because now
we were looking at a homicide

and looking for human remains.

- Every tool that
investigators could muster

to look for Gerald's remains
was used,

including ground-penetrating radar,

cadaver dogs.

The investigators even went
to the extent of using a backhoe

to dig up the corral
where Denise Goodwin had said

a horse had been previously buried.

But they found no evidence
to indicate

that a human body
had ever been there.

- While executing the warrant,
including her registered vehicles,

we find the resignation from Gerald
that he had signed...

...transferring
control of the trust to Denise.

We also found documents that Denise
had actually converted...

...a lot of Gerald's money
to her personal use.

These types of cases,
it's all about the money.

These are predators
looking to get money.

The money went
from Gerald's personal account

to a joint account with Denise,
onto a personal account with Denise.

It was very systematic
how she did it.

When we seized the computer
that Denise was using,

we found documents that turned out
to be forged certificates

that stated that Denise
was a licensed or certified trustee.

We also did forensics
on her computer.

Discovered that
she was forging documents

with Gerald's signature on it.

At this point we're pretty convinced
that everything after October 21st,

any document that Gerald signed,
was likely a forgery.

We also find notes
that Denise has made

trying to keep up with her scam,

that basically document
the contact she has,

what she's told to detectives,

questions she asked herself,

including one question - "Is it time
for me to hire a criminal lawyer?"

This turned out to be
a big break in the case

because it meant that Denise Goodwin

had masterminded the entire plot
of Rabourn's disappearance

and taking all of his assets.

It confirms that she had a plan
all along.

Also during
the computer forensics examination,

we find that Denise
searched Darvocet,

which is a pretty potent drug

used to treat cancer patients
like Carolyn.

She's researching how much should be
administered to cause an overdose.

So, Darvocet, like other opiates...

...will cause the individual to
essentially go into a coma and die,

depending on how much
is administered.

Considering Gerald's age
and stature, I mean,

he was an elderly man, 110 pounds.

It wouldn't have taken
much of the drug.

Also, there were a lot of drugs
left over from Carolyn,

who had been in hospice
for five years.

And the purpose of these drugs is
to make hospice patients comfortable

so that they don't feel any pain.

Yet, in Gerald's case,

administering an overdose of
Darvocet would essentially kill him.

We wanted to find
where Gerald's car was,

and we did a search number on
the vehicle identification number.

And, based on the VIN, the car was
now registered to Denise Goodwin.

We recovered the car
and impounded it.

And inside the car was a receipt
to have the car painted.

We knew that Gerald Rabourn's
Honda Civic was white

and the car was now blue.

So, we located the individuals
that painted the car

and interviewed them, and discovered
that Denise had brought the car in.

And, even though the car
did not need to be painted,

Denise insisted that they
completely repaint the car blue,

and insisted that everything
be taken out of the trunk

and the trunk
actually be painted blue.

At this point, it kinda confirmed
all the red flags.

MITCHELL: They know what she's done

with the Rabourn assets
and real-estate fraud,

but she's hired a criminal attorney
at that point in time,

and refused to answer
any further questions.

So, we knew that she knew

that the eyes of the police
were focused on her.

But, in my experience
as a prosecutor,

I know what it takes to go forward
with a no-body case.

There's huge risk in doing that.
That's double jeopardy.

- Double jeopardy
is the legal principle

that if you've been
acquitted of a crime,

you cannot be retried
for that same crime.

Cases like this are precisely why
there are what is known as

filing District Attorneys
in the United States -

gatekeepers
of criminal investigations,

who ultimately make the decision
whether or not

this package is in good enough shape
to be taken to trial

because they really get
one shot at it.

- But then they discovered evidence
that Denise Goodwin and her son

were going to be
leaving the country in July.

- During the computer forensics,
we found that Denise Goodwin

was planning on
leaving the country -

she was planning on
doing this cruise with her son -

and that she was doing research
and finding countries

that had no extradition
with the United States.

Obviously, we didn't want her
leaving the country

out of our jurisdiction,
so we contacted the travel agents.

The tickets were still valid,
so we got the flights and so forth.

- It was critical in my mind
that we act quickly

in order to stop her from being able
to get on that plane.

Denise Goodwin and her son,

they were flying out
on July 12th of 2011,

and because I was able to have
enough evidence to charge her

with the theft
of the Rabourn vehicle,

we met her at the airport
on July 12th.

Oh, it was a great day
to see her in custody.

We decided to break
the case into two parts.

Do the initial arrest
for the financial crimes

including a bail restriction,

so that she couldn't use any of
Gerald's estate money to post bail.

- We worked around the clock,

sometimes day and night,
trying to get it put together.

- There's perhaps no other
type of criminal investigation

that is as vetted
and as scrutinised

before moving to trial
or to charges,

as a no-body homicide.

These are among the most
circumstantial cases

and the ones toughest to build.

- What the financial crimes evidence
actually disclosed

is that Denise Goodwin,

even before Carolyn died,

she had used Carolyn Rabourn's
American Express card

to purchase a video camera
and video editing software

that she wanted to use to help
film services at her church...

...which is ironic in its own sense.

- Fraudsters have been shown
in several studies

to actually have
psychopathic traits,

to lack empathy,
to lack remorse.

This is a case
really just about greed.

It was not a leap
once the fraud began,

and this elaborate scheme
began unfolding,

for her to mercilessly just decide
to take him out of the equation.

- We were able to determine
that that credit card statement

would've arrived at Gerald's home
on 21st October 2010,

which was the day
that all life signs ceased.

We believe the reason
that he was killed

was the American Express card
statement.

That would've made him upset
because he was stingy with money.

He would've made a call immediately
to Denise.

On October 21st
is about the time she realised

that the only way
for her to take the estate,

and the only way
to avoid getting caught,

was to kill Gerald.

- He had to die or else
she was going to get caught.

And all that money that she wanted

for her little real-estate
rental property empire

was going to get taken away
from her.

- We tracked her movements that day.

We did a detailed analysis
on the cell-phone pings.

She started the day at her home,
came down, met with Gerald.

The two cell phones were together
at Gerald's residence.

She regularly made him lunch.

So likely,
when she made lunch that day,

she put the Darvocet in the lunch,

and when he consumed it,
he died within a not very long time.

Opiates have a tendency
to act pretty quick.

It actually shows a lot of thought.

I mean, she's obviously aware that
forensic evidence is important,

which is probably why she chose
to poison him with the opiate.

That's what we would term to be
a quiet kill.

I feel comfortable in saying
that she felt like

if she was able
to get rid of the body,

that she would never be able to be
charged with homicide,

as long as we couldn't find
Gerald's remains.

Based on photos of the residence,
there is a carpet missing.

We believe that
after Denise killed Gerald,

wrapped him up in the carpet
that was missing from the house,

put him in the trunk of his own car.

Based on the cell-phone pings,
went to an area with dumpsters

and disposed of his body
in the dumpster,

which would mean that the body
ended up in the landfill.

So, Gerald would be covered
under tons of trash

by the time we even started
to investigate the case.

- By the middle of August
we concluded

we had enough to go forward
on the murder charges

without ever finding
Gerald Rabourn's body.

- How she found out about it was
a phone call from her ex-husband.

GOODWIN: (sobs) Did they...

MITCHELL:
We call that an adoptive admission.

It's where you're confronted
with the commission of a crime

and innocent people
would deny it or be aghast

that they're being charged
with something they didn't do.

Hers was pretty much
the opposite of that.

- Her reaction to that phone call
also was played out for the jury.

In October of 2014,

Denise Goodwin was convicted
of murder in the first degree

with special circumstances
for financial gain.

And on January 31st 2015,

Goodwin was sentenced
to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

Denise has a very dark personality.

She's a con woman,

and she spent a lot of her life

taking money from other people.

- Denise Goodwin,
she wanted something so bad

she was willing to kill for it.

And she saw how easy it
was to steal from elderly people.

And she thought she could get
away with it. She was wrong.

This is obviously the worst of the
worst that can happen to someone,

where someone that they trust,
a caregiver,

who's actually a predator
in disguise, is let in the door.

And I hate to say it,

but I believe it happens a lot more
often than we ever discover.

- It means a lot to me
to get justice for the family.

If we would've not arrested her
and convicted her,

there was another victim
that she was gonna go to.

There was another door that was
gonna get opened and let Denise in.

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