All language subtitles for Girl.on.the.Run.The.Hunt.For.Americas.Most.Wanted.Woman.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-GRACE.Hi

REPORTER 1: Sarah Pender
was doing 110 years for a pair

of Indianapolis murders
in October of 2000

before escaping from
a maximum security prison.

Investigators
say Pender had help

and is being passed around
from friend to friend.

The Department of Corrections,
Indiana State Police,

and a US Marshals task force
have worked nonstop

in trying to apprehend Pender.

REPORTER 2: Also tonight,
a convicted killer

is on the loose and a prison
guard is now under arrest.

Suddenly there was
a knock on the door.

REPORTER:
Sarah Pender was serving

a 110-year sentence
at Rockville.

Prison officials
say that Spitler

drove a prison van inside
the gates and then hit...

[person panting]

My heart dropped.

I did not know what to do.

[knock at door]

REPORTER: It was a shock
to Steve Stolz...

SARAH:
I was absolutely scared.

And I was afraid to look
out the little peephole

because I thought, I'm gonna
get shot in the face.

PERSON:
Side, facing that way.

And I thought, this is it.

[latches clicking]

[door creaking]

[tense music]

And when I opened up the door,
it was my friend Thea.

[chuckles]

[somber music]

Thea and I spent time
in prison together.

And Peggy had told Thea
where to find me.

And so Thea showed up,
and she said,

bitch, what are you doing?

I said, well, I did it.

She said, yes, you did.

Oh, my God, yes, you did.

She said, we gotta get
the fuck out of here.

So I said, well, let's go.

♪♪

[engine rumbling]

[dramatic music]

♪♪

Thea and I drive to her house.

[laughter]

That night, Thea fixed me
pork chops,

potatoes, green beans.

It was delicious.

It was the best thing
I'd had in eight years.

I remember just poking
at my food with this real fork

and feeling, you know, the...

the metal on my teeth
and thinking,

oh, my gosh, this is real.

REPORTER: Sarah Pender
is still on the run.

SARAH: These were
the most normal things,

like I was at home.

REPORTER:
Pender was serving time

for a double murder
in Marion County back in 2000.

SARAH: I remember,
I was sitting in a...

like, a La-Z-Boy chair

and feeling the cushion
and just knowing that

the harshness of prison
was behind me.

[tense music]

[sirens wailing]

RYAN: In a fugitive
investigation such as Pender,

you can't sit.

Every lead,
I went and checked out.

My visit to her friend Peggy
maybe didn't bear fruit,

but, um, I left
my business card.

And she said she would call me
if she heard from Sarah.

I said, if I find out
that you're helping her,

it's gonna be
a bad situation for you.

♪♪

That's how I rolled.

Show a presence and then
get them to work with you.

Like setting a bird trap,
I was setting...

I was setting areas
out there for me

that would hopefully spring
and would generate a capture.

[siren wailing]

I was chasing down these lines
and meeting these offenders,

but I'm also profiling her.

♪♪

She got someone
to give her a phone

and help her on the run.

She's good at getting people
to do things

that are outside
the normal human behavior.

Does she get people to do
things up and to including

putting two bodies
in a trash dumpster?

REPORTER:
Pender was convicted in 2002

for the murder
of her two roommates.

Police say she helped
her codefendant

dispose of the bodies
in a south-side dumpster.

I thought, would Rick Hull
play ball with me?

Richard Hull
was the codefendant.

That was her boyfriend at the
time these murders happened.

He was in Pendleton Prison

doing his own 100-plus years
for the murders.

GUARD 1 [over radio]:
Unit 1, industrial bridge.

GUARD 2 [over radio]:
1.

GUARD 3 [over radio]:
Checkpoint 6, copy.

RYAN: I thought Richard
would know her

better than anybody else.

I also thought he may know
where she would probably go.

♪♪

So I introduced myself.

I told him I was
with the US Marshals

and I was looking for Sarah.

He got a smile on his face.

He goes, oh, yeah?

I had mixed emotions
about her escape.

I was happy for her.

Yeah, good, go, enjoy it
while you can, you know?

But I was really hurting
and... and...

and frustrated because I looked
at my life as being over.

I mean, I'm at a maximum
prison because of Sarah.

And, um, they tell me
that I will probably

end up dying in this place.

♪♪

Ryan asked me to help,
but it was just like,

how can I help him
when I don't know anything?

I don't know where she is.

RYAN: I mean,
Rick knows her so well.

So I said, where could she go?

Do you have any theories
about where she may run to?

He thought about it.

Rick told me the name Thea
and that she did time with her

and that'd be someone
she would turn to on the run.

♪♪

It was a hell of a lead.

♪♪

SARAH: At this point,
my money's cut off.

I don't know how I'm going
to support myself.

And Thea gives me a suggestion.

♪♪

Thea was a stripper,
and she had been

spending time
with one of the clients,

uh, outside the strip club.

And she knew that he wanted
to have a threesome.

She suggested
that we have sex with him

and that he would
probably give us money.

At the time, I was willing
to give up my body,

absolutely...
my body, my attention,

my affection... for freedom.

♪♪

[knocking]

[door creaks]

That night, Thea arranged
for us to meet

at this motel room
and introduced me to Tom.

He was a businessman.

He was clearly in his late 50s,

but he was well built.

He was dressed nice,
smelled wonderful,

so I didn't have
any worries about him

being this dirty old man.

[door creaks]

Thea told him
that my name was Brandy

and that I had just been
released from prison

and that I needed
to make some money.

♪♪

[heavy exhale]

[faint laughter]

♪♪

After the threesome,
Tom asked me

what I was gonna do
for the rest of the evening.

And I told him
that I didn't know.

I didn't really
have anywhere to go.

And so he said that I
could stay in the room

because it was already paid for.

♪♪

RYAN: I feel like
I'm on the scent.

Thea was working
in the strip club industry.

And Rick had told me
that if she really

needed to get means or help,
she would go to Thea

or go to there
and start hustling.

I didn't know specifically
where Thea was working,

but there was various strip
clubs here in Indianapolis.

And I went out there and spent
some time in these places

to see if Sarah was there.

♪♪

At this point,
you don't want them to think

you're law enforcement at all.

So you go in there like
a baller and a shot caller,

you know, and what I mean
by that is,

you better have
your money with you.

The more money you spread,
the more they're gonna see

you're just a normal guy.

♪♪

One of the distinguishing
marks on Sarah was, um,

she had a tattoo of a bull's-eye

on her... on her butt cheek.

And I went out there
looking for tattoos,

looking for anybody
that looked like Sarah.

I stayed out until
I couldn't stay up anymore.

I saw a lot of ass,
but I didn't see bull's-eyes.

[bills fluttering]

♪♪

I was frustrated, but I didn't
feel defeated, by any means,

because I will find out
who's helping her.

♪♪

♪♪

SARAH: The next morning,
Tom came again,

brought me McDonald's
for breakfast.

And he offered to pay
for another night

at the motel room
so I had somewhere to go

and that he would
keep me company.

So I said yes.

♪♪

Tom and I were laying in bed,
and he turned on the TV

and was flipping
through the channels.

REPORTER:
Investigators say Sarah Pender

is on the loose and dangerous.

A Marion County jury
convicted her in the year 2000

in a double murder.

Pender escaped

from the Rockville
Correctional Facility,

allegedly with the help
of a correctional officer.

♪♪

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

I was like, damn.

[sighs]

[tense music]

REPORTER:
Pender was convicted in 2002

for the murder
of her two roommates.

SARAH: I didn't want
to tell Tom the truth,

but I didn't know what to say.

And I'm a terrible liar.

So I told him the story.

♪♪

The evening that Drew
and Trish were murdered,

Rick and I were out
with my dad and stepmom.

When Rick and I came home,
Drew and Rick immediately

started arguing about money that.

Rick's sister
owed to Drew for drugs.

Rick's talking about, you know,
fuck this motherfucker.

And, you know, he said,
you probably want to leave.

And I told him,
I have nowhere to go.

Where am I supposed to go?

[crickets chirping]

And so I walked
around the neighborhood.

When I came home,
everything seemed really quiet,

like, extra quiet.

♪♪

And the house was dark.

♪♪

And it felt wrong.

♪♪

I heard a noise.

I didn't understand
what the noise was.

And I called out for Rick.

And there was no response.

♪♪

And I looked.

I didn't see Drew
or Trish or Rick.

♪♪

There was blood on the floor.

♪♪

And when I got
to the living room,

I saw Rick.

♪♪

Rick was bent over.

He was...

putting Trish's body
into a blanket.

I do remember being very afraid

and thinking that,
what do I do now?

What do I do?
What do I do?

Because I didn't know.

I said, Ricky.

♪♪

And when he stood up,
he turned around,

and he just looked at me.

♪♪

For a moment,
we just stared at each other.

And I clearly thought
to myself, I'm about to die.

♪♪

And so I just froze.

I just froze there,
and I waited.

♪♪

And then I put my hands up,
and I just said,

what do you want me to do?

♪♪

Rick told me
to get another blanket.

And so I did.

♪♪

I remember Rick dragging
Trish's body across the floor

to take her out.

And when he put her body
in the back of the truck...

♪♪

I saw that Drew
was already in there.

♪♪

But I didn't know what to do,

except stand there.

♪♪

I just felt so helpless.

♪♪

Rick told me to get
into the truck,

and I did.

[engine humming]

I remember very clearly
thinking, this is not real,

and making up
that everything was fine.

♪♪

Rick drove only
a handful of blocks away

to a dumpster behind a building.

♪♪

[car door clicks open,
dull thudding]

♪♪

I only saw when I looked
in the rearview mirror.

♪♪

And then I didn't want
to see anything else.

And so I just looked forward,
and I pretended not to see.

♪♪

[siren wailing]

♪♪

RICHARD: Sarah says she had
nothing to do with this,

that I was the one
that did it all.

And that's not the truth.

That's not what happened
whatsoever.

♪♪

Drew was my friend.

He was my brother.

♪♪

As far as the night
that this all took place, um,

I'm still in the middle
of some of my appeals,

so I can't get into
the full details

of everything that...
that took place.

But I did not...
I did not, uh...

I did not murder Drew and Trish.

♪♪

RYAN: When I was
talking to Rick,

he openly said he walked in
and returned home

and Sarah was rocking
back and forth

holding a shotgun while
two dead bodies were there.

That's what...
that's what he claims.

♪♪

RICHARD: Who are you
gonna believe:

me with my background,
knowing that, uh...

he already knows I'm a drug dude

and have been in the business,

6'3 1/2 ", 6'4",
325 pounds, bald head,

goatee, looking like this,

or some girl that's kind of
innocent-looking,

just working her way
through being a young adult.

Who you gonna believe?

♪♪

'Cause females won't lie.

They're not gonna be deceiving.

[laughs]

♪♪

[tense music]

♪♪

Rick just asked me to buy a gun.

And I said yes.

I didn't... I didn't question
why he would want it.

Um, there wasn't a lot
of discussion about it, um.

Rick couldn't buy a gun

because he had
a previous felony.

So at 7:30 in the morning,
he drove us to Walmart.

And we walked in.

He picked out the gun
and ammunition that he wanted.

And I bought it,
paid with a check and my ID,

thinking that this was what
I was supposed to be doing.

♪♪

[water sloshing]

[gunshots]

[camera shutter snapping]

[gunshot]

RICHARD:
Did I know if Drew or Trish

was gonna get killed
with that shotgun?

♪♪

No.

Sarah was playing her game,
was... was pointing everything

at me at the very beginning.

I just don't know
what really happened.

What I can say is that Sarah
wanted the... that shotgun.

It was Sarah's idea
to get the...

to go for the protection.

I mean, uh, I was
in the drug business.

If I wanted a gun,
I could have one, OK?

I mean, getting a gun
was not a problem,

would not have been
a problem, um.

♪♪

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

REPORTER: The victims,
a white man and a woman,

were discovered
last night in a dumpster

behind the Teamsters Hall

in the 800 block
of South Meridian.

The two had been shot to death.

♪♪

Well, it's not
an everyday occurrence

to have, uh, bodies
in a dumpster in Indianapolis,

let alone two bodies
in a dumpster.

♪♪

Once we identified our victims,

Andrew Cataldi
and Tricia Nordman,

we were able to connect
the location

of where they had lived.

And we knew that the home
was being rented

by Rick Hall and Sarah Pender.

♪♪

Rick clearly was a suspect.

We knew Rick
had been dealing drugs.

REPORTER: Police came
to believe that this man,

22-year-old Richard Hull,

who lived with Cataldi
and Nordman,

was the likely murderer.

He was placed under arrest
and charged with, uh,

Andrew and Tricia's murders.

We just didn't know
if Sarah was involved.

♪♪

[tape recorder clicks]

♪♪

ANTHONY:
She was flipping her hair

and fixing her blouse,
fixing her shirt.

I thought she was
the type of woman

that maybe thought she could
talk her way out of this.

But we knew that Sarah
had purchased a weapon.

She helped conceal the evidence.

I felt like she was
more involved than she let on.

I stand firm in my convictions

that she is a very,
very dangerous person.

Uh, she's capable
of doing about anything.

After Sarah escaped
from prison in 2008,

my daughter said, well, Dad,
aren't you a little

worried about what she might do?

I mean, you're the one
that convicted her.

Don't you think
we ought to be concerned

about her coming here?

I said that I think Sarah

had a dark, evil demon within.

And I think it's a good thing
for Indianapolis

and everybody else that she's
found as soon as possible

because I don't know
what she's capable of doing.

[dramatic music]

When I was a youngster,
I was an actor.

And then I realized
a little later on,

you need to be
gainfully employed.

So I fooled around
and I practiced the law

and eventually ended up
working as a deputy prosecutor

in Marion County
Prosecutor's Office.

Sarah Pender had been charged
with two murders.

I was getting to prosecute.

And I loved that.

You know, I felt pretty good

about the evidence in the case.

♪♪

BONNIE: I tried to feel
optimistic about the trial

the best I could, because I had
no idea what the evidence was.

And I just didn't know
what to expect.

SARAH: Before the trial,
I thought that they just

made a mistake
and everything would be OK,

that it would be fixed.

I remember sitting there
thinking,

I couldn't wait to get home,
lay in my bed,

eat lasagne, and figure out

how I was gonna
move forward with my life.

♪♪

LARRY:
When the trial started,

Sarah was trying
to convince a jury

that although Rick
did all these horrible things

and committed these murders

and that she was with him

that she didn't
actually participate.

She said she was scared.

She thought Rick Hull
might shoot her

if she didn't help him.

And I argued to the jury,
she had that opportunity

to leave the day
after the shootings

to go to law enforcement.

Just why in the hell
didn't you get out of there,

leave, go?

[gunshot]

But she didn't.

♪♪

I've covered
lots of murder cases.

I'm a journalist.

I look for evidence.
I look for facts.

And in Sarah's case,
the facts Larry put forward

were really compelling.

Larry introduced a witness
named Floyd Pennington.

♪♪

Floyd had been, uh, locked up
in jail on a robbery charge.

She had some sort of steamy
pen-pal relationship with him

while they were both
locked up in jail.

SARAH: When Floyd
entered the courtroom

from the opposite side,

I wanted to yell out, like,
why are you doing this?

♪♪

Floyd was charming, and he used

proper spelling and grammar,

and that's unusual
for a lot of people in jail.

After seven months of writing,
Floyd and I decided to organize

a trip to the hospital.

♪♪

LARRY: They, uh, feign
some sort of illnesses

so they could talk in person.

♪♪

He told her
that he wanted to have

a better... stronger
relationship,

and she did too.

But he needed her
to confide in him,

tell him the truth
about the murders

of Andrew Cataldi
and Trish Nordman.

♪♪

VIC: So Floyd said that Sarah
had told him that she wanted

to get rid of the roommates
to... you know, for money

or drug dealing
or whatever it is

they were into at the time...

[water sloshing]

And that she bought the shotgun.

She got Rick angry enough

and convinced him
to commit these murders.

♪♪

I wanted to scream out,
like, this is not happening.

He is lying.

How could anyone
believe this man?

How could anybody believe him?

♪♪

LARRY: And I said she had
a Charles Manson-like ability

to convince people
to do bad things.

VIC: During the trial, Larry
came out and told the jury

how there's also
this one letter.

[paper rustling]

♪♪

It painted a picture of Sarah,

uh, and... and not as a,
you know, innocent victim.

♪♪

It was something
that was certainly shocking.

LARRY: "My dearest Richard,
I just snapped.

I didn't mean to kill them,
it must have been the acid."

SARAH: There was nothing
I could do to defend myself.

And all I could think about
was, I didn't write this.

I didn't write this.
I didn't do this.

LARRY:
"I'll never forget you.

"I love you
and I miss you so much.

Love always."

♪♪

VIC: Larry,
in his closing argument,

sort of gave two possibilities

of ways of proving
Sarah's guilt.

In one, it was that,
like that letter said,

Sarah was the one who had
actually pulled the trigger

and shot the victims.

And the other scenario
Larry put forward

was Floyd Pennington's
statement,

that Sarah had manipulated Rick
into doing these crimes.

It doesn't matter.

If the jury believes
one or the other,

um, she's still guilty
of murder.

♪♪

LARRY: And I said,
you have a responsibility

to convict her.

And they did.

The jury came back in,
and the judge ruled

that she was guilty
of both murders.

[gavel bangs]

[water sloshing]

Sarah Pender was sentenced
to 110 years.

♪♪

All I remember is crying.

♪♪

Oh, I cried, you know,
because what do you do?

I felt like my heart
was ripped out.

♪♪

I was lost,
because there was no way

that I could sit in prison
for 110 years

for something I didn't do.

[siren wailing]

REPORTER: Investigators
say Sarah Pender

is on the loose and dangerous.

A Marion County jury
convicted her in the year 2000

in a double murder.

SARAH: Tom stayed with me
for a few days.

Our relationship deepened,
and I just trusted

that Tom was not gonna go home
and call the police.

[dramatic music]

He was all these things that,
from the outside looking in,

was a very normal,
upstanding citizen.

But in his private life,
Tom was a sex addict,

and he saw an opportunity
for me to be his sex pet.

♪♪

Clear as day, I remember
he asked me if...

it was the oddest thing.

He asked me, do you love me?

I said, no.

He said, do you think
you could love me?

I said, yeah,
I think I could love you.

He said, OK.

He said, do you want me
to take care of you?

Said, yeah.

And so I began to look
at the relationship as,

I need to play a role.

SARAH: You know,
he was my sugar daddy.

And I never got greedy.

I never wanted him to think
that I was using him.

I always wanted him to know
that he was using me.

♪♪

♪♪

SARAH: Tom wanted
to go to a casino.

He enjoyed gambling
and wanted to show me off

as something like a prize.

I was worried that someone
would recognize me,

but I had cut my hair, dyed it.

I was made up in this little
black dress and a necklace.

♪♪

It was a very reckless thing
to go to the casino,

but it made him happy.

It made him want to keep me.

♪♪

One of the things
that made me valuable to Tom

is that I would do
whatever he wanted me to do.

And so when Tom
wanted to go out,

I said yes, because I would
have said yes if he asked me

to turn the sky purple.

[indistinct chatter]

But every moment
was tainted with knowing

that someone that had seen me
on the news could spot me.

REPORTER:
Others have talked to police,

saying they think
they've spotted Pender.

I became more paranoid.

REPORTER 1: Sarah Pender.
REPORTER 2: Sarah Pender.

REPORTER 3: Sarah Pender.
REPORTER 4: Pender.

REPORTER 5: Sarah Pender.

♪♪

I realized it was important
for me to keep moving

and get out of Indianapolis.

♪♪

So I asked Tom to help me.

[siren wailing]

[tense music]

♪♪

Tom fixed me up with a job

down in Cincinnati working
with a friend of his, uh,

that was a general contractor.

It was really hard
to be away from my friends

because they had become
such a support system.

And so that sort of solitude

was difficult.

♪♪

PEGGY:
One day at home...

[doorbell rings]
The FedEx guy came,

and I thought Mom
might have ordered something.

She said she didn't
order anything.

And then I got to looking at
it, and it had my name on it.

[paper rustling]

Then I opened it up and I seen
it was a little Tracfone,

one that can't be traced.

And then I looked in there again

and seen there was a little
note in there from Sarah.

♪♪

RYAN: It was roadblock after
roadblock after roadblock,

but you can't give up.

I've got certain things
in place, and then, boom.

[phone buzzing]

I get notified by Peggy.

She was nervous, and she goes,
Sarah mailed me a phone,

and she's gonna call me
this Thursday.

What do I do?

I was like, don't do anything.
I'll be there Thursday.

So when Peggy reported that
to me,

that took me from cloud one
to cloud nine.

I was excited.

It gives you that other
shot of adrenaline

to keep on going
'cause I'm getting closer.

♪♪

[tense music]

♪♪

RYAN: When Peggy
got her phone mailed to her,

I called down our tactical
operations truck from Detroit.

He came down for this because
once the phone came up live,

we needed to track
where she's bedded down at.

♪♪

When we got to Peggy,

you could see Peggy was nervous.

And God love her, you know,
here we are, federal agents,

and... and... and... and this
is a big deal.

♪♪

We're all waiting for this
thing to start ringing.

And all I told Peggy was,
when she calls, be normal.

[phone ringing]

When the phone rang,
it scared me.

I jumped.

I didn't know what to expect.

[ringing continues]

SARAH:
Eventually Peggy answered,

and I immediately felt relief,

uh, from this tension
that I had.

♪♪

I mean, she was
talking really, kind of,

like, quiet, you know?

So I don't know
where she was at.

SARAH: Peggy was crying,
and she's like,

they know that I helped you.

I don't want
to go back to prison.

Please, just turn yourself in.

That was so hard
to hear her be scared.

[device beeps]

RYAN: My colleague
was out in the truck,

and he was trying
to locate which tower

and which antenna,
where she was at.

[device beeping]

I'm trying to keep Peggy
on the phone,

'cause the longer I have
the conversation going,

the better it was for us
to get where she was at.

♪♪

I begged her to turn herself in

because they had orders
to shoot to kill.

♪♪

SARAH: I told her,
I can't turn myself in.

This is what I chose to do.

And if I go back,
I'm just going to kill myself.

And I told her, if they
find me and they shoot me,

they're only gonna
do me a favor.

♪♪

RYAN: Those are words I'm sure
Peggy didn't want to hear.

And it was the first
indicator that Sarah

didn't want to go back alive.

That goes beyond me speculating.

I heard it
from the horse's mouth

that she's... she's accepted
violence as opposed

to sort of a peaceful surrender.

I remember apologizing
to her and saying,

Peggy, I'm so sorry,
I'm so sorry.

♪♪

And then she hung up.

And I believe that was
the last time I talked to her.

RYAN: After the phone call,
I literally took

a beeline out to the truck.

The, uh, technical guy finds out

it's on a tower
outside of Cincinnati, Ohio,

near several motels.

So we'd have to only conclude

she's bedded down somewhere
in one of these rooms.

I mean, God,
that made perfect sense.

♪♪

We had the nest.

[tires squealing]

[guns cocking]

I felt that urge,
that excitement.

It's like the dog
on the scent of a trail.

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

So US Marshals
from Cincinnati went out

and canvassed
the area where Sarah

was making this phone call.

I was confident I'd get her.

♪♪

[phone buzzing]

But the marshals
called back from Cincinnati

and basically said, hey,
we've canvassed

all these places... nothing.

No one's seen her at all.

[phone snaps]

[phone clatters]

♪♪

Looking back, I was
goddamn close to her.

♪♪

[grunts]

But a good hunter
will never give up.

I've never had to shoot
anybody, never have.

But I can assure you,
as I'm sitting here,

the magazine
that I carried in my gun,

that first bullet
had her name on it.

♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪