All language subtitles for Harlan Cobens Final Twist-S01E03.E

- Harlan, over here!

- Ladies and gentlemen,
Harlan Coben.

[applause]

- He's the greatest
thriller writer.

- Aw, come on.

- Coben's written over 30
"New York Times" bestsellers.

- With over a dozen hit
TV shows and movies.

[dramatic music]

- In all our stories,
the same question--

what made the killer
cross that line?

[suspenseful music]

♪

- I'm Harlan Coben.

Often, the best mystery novels
do not start with a murder;

they start with
a missing person.

When I hear those words
crackle over a police scanner,

a switch flips,
the dots connect,

and I'm pulled into the void.

That's why
Nancy's disappearance

wouldn't leave me alone.

She was the reliable one.

She didn't miss appointments.

Nancy wasn't the type
to just vanish.

And that's where
our mystery begins.

- Nancy Woodrum's
disappearance

was extremely high-profile
because stuff like that

doesn't happen in this county.

- Deputies are still
searching for clues

to find 62-year-old
Nancy Woodrum,

who went missing on Friday.

- She had plans
with a friend this morning

that she didn't show up for.

- We had no idea
what happened to her.

She just vanished.

- You start looking around
and questioning people.

- In a case like this,
anybody within a mile

is a person of interest.

- Nancy owned
a large property that

she was in the midst
of selling.

- She had several arguments
about money.

- You look at friends, family.

- And that night,
there was a large

wedding party on the property.

- Could one of them
be involved?

- The entire bridal party
were suspects.

- Why can't we find her?

Where is she?

- Where's Nancy?

♪

- A crime happened here.

The past isn't what it seemed.

The story told
turns out to be deception.

And just when you're sure
you have the answer...

- 911, what is the address
of your emergency?

Hello? Anyone there?

- There's one final twist.

[soft music]

♪

- Paso Robles is wine country.

A lot of vineyards,
a lot of ranches.

People help each other,
care about their neighbors.

You can leave your doors open.

Everybody's like
family around here.

- At that time in Paso Robles,
you knew mostly everybody.

And Nancy Woodrum was known
very well by a lot of people.

- As a friend, Nancy was
someone you could trust.

You could confide
in her with things.

And she was very gentle,
very kind, always generous.

Tip your bartender good.

Tip your waitress good.

[birds chirping]

- Nancy, her residence
was beautiful.

It was an oasis.

It felt like
stepping back in time.

There were horse corrals,
a beautiful pool and spa.

- Nancy lived there
with her husband.

And then he passed away,
leaving her the house.

[camera shutter clicking]

Nancy was getting
ready to sell it.

She was in the process
of fixing up

some different parts
of the property.

And she put the house up
for rent for wedding parties.

[pensive music]

- We picked May 5th
as our wedding day.

We rented Nancy's property
from a rental site.

It seemed just like
the perfect place

to get ready with all
of my best friends.

- I stayed in the guest house
with the bride

and two other bridesmaids.

The bride had informed me
that, if we need anything,

the owner's right here,
staying in the studio

connected to our guest house.

- Nancy came across as a very
kind-hearted and sweet woman,

someone who gives you a hug
right when you meet them,

and very welcoming and upbeat.

- On Friday night, we attended
the rehearsal dinner

at a local winery.

And then the day
of the wedding,

it was the hustle
and bustle of trying

to get 11 bridesmaids and
the mom of the bride ready.

Then we started taking
pictures around the property.

And at that point,
the golf cart pulled up.

It was Nancy's daughter.

She approached us and asked us
if we had seen her mom.

She was like,
her bed has been stripped.

Looks like there was
a struggle in her room.

There's blood.

I remember looking at her
and telling her,

you need to call the police.

You need to call the police.

You need to call the police.

I think I said it three times.

[sirens wailing]

- Myself and another deputy
were dispatched

to a possible
missing persons case

at Nancy's house.

- There were several things
not right.

Nancy's daughter
told the patrol deputies

that Nancy would never leave
her sliding glass door open.

And when family arrived,
the TV was on.

And Nancy would never go to bed
or fall asleep with the TV on.

- There was what appeared to
be blood inside, on the floor,

dried blood on the carpet,
some on the wall.

There was bedding
that was missing.

- And there was
a decorative pillow

that had what appeared to be

smeared dried blood
on both sides of it.

[suspenseful music]

At that time, I'd been in law
enforcement for 20-some years,

and I'd seen plenty
of crime scenes.

And this was a crime scene
and not an accident.

[indistinct radio chatter]

- It went from missing person

to potential homicide
right away.

You always hope for the best
and prepare for the worst.

- And then we learned
there was a second scene.

A patrol officer had located
some bedding and clothing

out towards Highway 58.

Our lab confirmed that
it belonged to Nancy Woodrum.

And some of it
had blood on it.

- She was taken.

And we feared that Nancy
was probably in a vehicle,

and somehow, that bedding had
fallen out of that vehicle.

Tragically, she may be injured
or, at the worst, dead.

♪

- The unknown sparks
our imagination,

a million what-ifs to explore.

But those first few hours
are the most precious.

Focus on the wrong what-ifs,

and the door of opportunity
closes.

- At Nancy's,
I dusted for prints

and collected several items
that had blood on them.

And a little bit of blood
on the pillow

had the shape of a handprint.

I collected items
from her bathroom,

such as a toothbrush
and a hairbrush,

so that we would be able
to build a DNA profile.

We were able to determine
that the female contributor

on the blood on the pillow
was Nancy.

And there was an unknown
male contributor.

- Whoever left that DNA,
he's our suspect.

♪

- Forensic evidence is the
silent detective in the room,

but it doesn't work alone.

You can't clap with one hand.

DNA needs a match.

[suspenseful music]

- When you get DNA evidence,

you can upload that
into the CODIS databank

to see if there's
anybody in CODIS

that matches that evidence.

There was no match.

- Now we have to determine, who
does that actually belong to?

- At that point, we get
Nancy's AT&T phone records.

One of the last people to have
contact with Nancy Woodrum

was her son, Chad.

There was a text conversation
between the two of them

on Friday at about 7:30
in the evening.

So we know she was alive
texting her son.

And at midnight, 17,

there's a 911 call
for 0 seconds.

So we feel like that's when

whoever went in her house
went in her house,

at midnight, 17,
or shortly prior to that.

- You're trying to figure out
who saw her last

and who
people of interest are.

That was a very
difficult task here.

The night
of her disappearance,

there's a whole bunch
of people on the property.

- We, as the bridal party, were
cast as the initial suspects.

- Saturday night,
it took a couple hours

to interview
the wedding party.

There was a couple of people
that did see Nancy on Friday.

And then all of the guests had
gone to the rehearsal dinner.

- At the rehearsal dinner,
people were drinking.

People do silly things
when they're drinking.

- And we did learn that
one of the wedding guests

told a detective that
he stayed behind

and did not go
to the rehearsal dinner.

Why would you come
all the way to a wedding

and then stay back?

He puts himself on the
property alone with Nancy

for five or six hours.

According to the detective
that spoke to him,

he was kind of exhibiting
some suspicious behavior,

just a little
excessive nervousness.

So we went
to re-interview him.

- We just had a couple
more questions to clarify.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- His wife provided
pictures of him and her

at the rehearsal dinner.

There were phone date
and time stamps.

It was very clear
he was there.

We asked him for consent.

He very quickly
volunteered his DNA.

And he's cleared by DNA.

- Never in a million years
was there a thought

that anybody
in that wedding party

was a part of or responsible
for anything

that happened to Nancy.

We had our babies there.
We had our families there.

Everyone cooperated,
and we were cleared.

- We did get married that day.

But it hit us really hard.

I look back to my wedding,
and I think of Nancy.

- Each dead end
means hours lost.

Each hour lost
means a lifetime

for criminals
to cover their tracks.

- An update now on the
missing woman in Paso Robles.

Deputies are expanding
their search.

62-year-old Nancy Woodrum
has been missing

since Friday afternoon.

- At that point,
the investigative team,

they were developing leads
to find out

who had been interacting
with Nancy in the days

leading up to her
disappearance.

- In any missing persons case,
we talk to the family.

- Where do you think
something could have

gone wrong with your mom

and somebody would
want to hurt her?

- There was a realtor
named Joe

who was a family friend,
who, at one point,

had the listing
for Nancy's house.

- I had Nancy's house
on the market

maybe a year and a half ago.

- There was some hostility.

He was very angry.

- It's a $2 million property.

That's a lot of commission.

He felt like Nancy
did him dirty.

♪

[pensive music]

♪

- Everyone has a mask
they show the world,

the best version of themselves,
the one who plays by the rules.

But it's an act, a performance.

Those who see the real face
underneath the mask,

the messy reality,
they're the ones who know

how far we're willing to go.

The truth is never
black and white.

It lives in the murky grays
where we each negotiate

our own version
of right and wrong.

- Do you remember what type
of threats Joe made?

- While we were looking
at Joe, the realtor,

we did discover
Nancy was also having issues

with a contractor.

- They had some level
of disagreement with Nancy

over the preparation
for sale of the property.

[suspenseful music]

- San Luis Obispo is
a fairly small county.

In law enforcement,
you can become familiar

with what we call
frequent flyers.

When we heard the name of
the contractor, Shaun Blume,

most of us knew him.

- He had a conviction.

♪

- I'm a general contractor,
so I do pretty much

all different phases
of construction.

- There was a painter on
the job site, Carlo Fuentes.

We called Carlo.

He told us that
he had met Nancy.

He described her as being
very polite and very nice.

There was one time
he was working late,

and she had
brought him out some tamales

to eat while he was painting

and they had
a brief conversation.

- He confirmed, yeah,
he had seen those two arguing.

- Did Shaun push her?

Did she fall and hit her head?
Did he freak out?

- We got DNA.

It doesn't match.

♪

- And then when we spoke
with the realtor, Joe,

he had a confirmed alibi.

- He had 15 or 20 people
that put him

out of the area
on a trail ride.

He could be taken off the list.

- So the wedding guest,
the contractor,

and the realtor
were ruled out.

- We cleared those people
in a few weeks.

After that, it was
a real big whodunit.

♪

[phone rings]

- You wanna believe all
the work hasn't been in vain.

But in those pursuits
are clues,

and they're adding up
to something.

Or are you overthinking it?

- We looked at
financial motive.

Who might stand
to gain something

if she were to disappear?

- You have a potential
sale of a property.

Certainly,
you have to put family in

as a person of interest.

- Nancy's son, Chad,
was the last person

to have contact with her.

- Nancy and her son
didn't get along

because of Nancy's faith.

- Chad was very angry,
didn't wanna talk to us,

didn't really wanna cooperate.

- Nancy's selling
her property,

and if something
happened to Nancy,

you were in line to inherit
what the property sold for.

- He said he didn't want his
DNA uploaded into the system.

We told him how suspicious
it makes him look,

and he wouldn't budge.

He was set in stone.

He would never give us his DNA.

[sirens wailing]

[grim music]

- We see an empty chair
at the dinner table,

and we think we have
it all figured out--

a mother's heartbreak,
a son who no longer cares,

a shattered relationship.

Case closed.

Or is that all just
a little too obvious?

- When was the last time
you'd been out to her place?

- Nancy's son,
Chad, wanted nothing

to do with the investigation.

It seemed that he felt
no love for his mother.

- And he's just not
a cooperative person.

So we were
watching Chad at work.

And at the end of his shift,
he was drinking beers.

We seized the beer bottles
and got his DNA.

It surprised me that DNA

ruled him out as a contributor
to our evidence.

- I know there was
some concern that Chad

wasn't as cooperative
as he should have been,

but his mother's gone,

and the whole community
is asking questions.

I just think it was
his way of responding,

of just self-protecting.

[soft music]

- By around September,

we had kind of cleared
most everybody.

And there was a lull there
where it was scary.

- People, quite frankly,
were very afraid.

There was a perpetrator
out there that

no one knew who they were.

- I'd go on my walks,
and all of a sudden,

it was like, I don't know
if I should be walking alone,

when I never
felt that fear before.

- Her poster started being
put up around the county.

And people, they'd ask,

hey, any idea what's
happened to Nancy?

Any word?

- We reached out to
the San Luis Obispo

County Sheriff's Office.

Unfortunately, no new details
are available at this time.

- I can't believe there
hasn't been any more leads.

- The sheriff's office has
a volunteer search and rescue.

For weeks,
they literally walked

a good ten miles looking in
culverts, looking in ditches.

I've never seen
anything like it.

[suspenseful music]

- Unfortunately,
none of those search parties

ever turned up any evidence.

[sirens wailing]

- As time passes,
fear quiets in the criminal.

But for the detective,
it grows.

And nothing is louder
than the tick of the clock.

- Detectives were trying
everything possible.

Sometimes, you just have
to have a lucky break.

[suspenseful music]

- At that time,
one of our investigators

had just returned
from a new training

about what is called
a Google geofence.

- We were the first
homicide case in California

that it was used.

Geofencing is a invisible line

drawn around
a particular area.

It will pick up on any
electronic device

with a signal that comes in
there.

We can detect that phone
number and when that device

entered that space.

- That night,
on Nancy's property,

there were guests
with cell phones

in the large house and in the
small house next to Nancy's.

- We have to be
extremely precise.

- So we put a little fence
around Nancy's living area.

- A 12-foot radius
was its accuracy.

- And we asked
for all the cell phones

that were in that area during
the time frame of our crime.

And we finally
get the data back.

- We have a device
that was there

at 1:00 in the morning
time frame.

It's not Nancy's device.

So who owns that cell phone?

- It's kind of
like a fingerprint.

- So now we get
a search warrant

to figure out what that
device is and who owns it.

- I am in the courthouse.

And my co-lead investigator,

he says it's Carlo.

I said, what?

Who's Carlo?

They said, that guy you talked
to in July, the painter.

And I said,
are you kidding me?

♪

[pensive music]

- When we think of mysteries,

we imagine the clues
are tangible--

a footprint, a torn letter,
a motive whispered in the dark.

But often the best leads
can't be touched or seen--

a ping, a digital echo.

The days of solving crimes in
the pages of an old case file

are behind us.

And now everything depends
on the data left behind.

Sometimes it's the only voice
a victim has left.

- When I started out
my business, I was young.

I was painting a home,
and I needed help.

Carlo told me that
a couple of years before,

he had come to
Paso Robles from Mexico.

He got married
and became a citizen.

And now Carlo was
working in the vineyards,

and he was unhappy.

So from there on out,
he worked for me,

and I trained him
to be a painter.

He was a really good worker,
eager to learn.

- He just had a nice,
mellow demeanor.

There was times there

where Carlo and I worked
solely together

for a long period where we
were doing a lot of remodels

for a builder here locally.

He was just always a good guy.

- He'd be there
from sunup to sundown.

And we developed
a relationship.

We would golf.

He spent time with my in-laws.

He spent time with my family.

- We did criminal histories.

He had none.

- We found out that

his marriage was maybe
a little troubled

but nothing that really
provided any red flags.

But we have the geofence
putting him

on the property for two hours.

What is Carlo Fuentes
doing out there

at 1:30 in the morning
when Nancy goes missing?

- We followed him,
trying to get a DNA sample.

Him and his wife had lunch,
and he left a bottle of Coke.

We got his DNA
from the Coke bottle.

The bloody handprint
on the pillow on Nancy's bed

had male DNA.

They were able to determine
that it was most likely

Carlo Fuentes' DNA.

[suspenseful music]

♪

- Finding the smoking gun
is one thing.

Finding the hand that fired
it, that's the hard part.

The clue leads you
to a name, a face,

a life that doesn't fit.

And that's when you know
the weapon is still out there,

waiting for its true master
to be unmasked.

- We have the DNA.

We have the geofence.

But if that's all you have,

is that proof
beyond a reasonable doubt

that a homicide occurred?

We don't have a body.

We have no idea what occurred.

Maybe she's
in a basement somewhere.

What we know is that
he's a suspect.

Let's talk to him as a suspect.

- Yeah.

- In an interview like this,

you have to build
a lot of rapport.

- Nobody's gonna
tell you anything

if they don't like you.

- We just started collecting
information from him.

We spent an hour just talking.

- We brought up Nancy
a little bit.

- And then when we felt
like it was the right time,

we asked him...

♪

[suspenseful music]

- Carlo presumably knows what
happened and where Nancy is.

So they have to figure out
an approach to get him to talk.

♪

- He smothered her
with the pillow,

rolls her up in blankets,
carries her out to his truck.

- The Carrizo Plains has
a lot of animal activity.

There's wild pigs,

there's coyotes, birds,
turkey buzzards.

- It took a while,
but finally I see these rocks

on the side of this hill.

And I see some bones.

And I look up
and see her skull.

She's there.

[pensive music]

♪

- Because the dental
was still there,

we were able to confirm
that it was Nancy.

- Although it didn't
bring Nancy back,

at least the family,
they know what happened.

♪

- It was closure,
and it was sadness.

Because I think there's
a little piece of you

that always hopes
that they're somewhere,

that they're gonna come
walking in the door.

Sorry.

I'm just thinking about
what she had to endure

and why someone
would do that to her.

- The confession,
it's overwhelming evidence

of his guilt.

- Mr. Fuentes Flores
was charged

with first-degree murder
committed during a rape.

- Carlo wanted to plead
guilty from the get-go.

He did not want to put
his family through a trial.

And one thing that
has always surprised me

is that he did this
with no criminal history.

[soft music]

- That evening,
her daughter told me this,

that Nancy had called her
and said the bridal party,

they arrived,
they got their goodie bags.

Everything is in control.

I'm gonna make it
an early night,

and I'll see you tomorrow.

And how quick
her whole life changed,

and how quick
the family's life changed

because they'll be
forever scarred by this.

I would hope that
this case will spare this

from happening again.

- She was part
of the community.

She had touched
a lot of people.

She's got her son,
her daughter, her grandkids

that'll keep her memory alive.

- I think about her a lot.

I will always remember
Nancy's giving spirit.

She was just--
she was light and love.

♪

- Many of us imagine
crossing that line

and how we'd get away with it.

Most quickly dismiss the idea,
but there are those who don't.

They slip into double lives.

And the thing about
a double life,

as the characters in my books
know all too well,

is that secrets and lies
don't stay buried for long.

And by the time they surface,
it's too late.

Guilt is torture forever.

But so is grief.

Just ask the families.

I'm Harlan Coben.

Good night.

[dramatic music]

♪

[suspenseful music]

♪