All language subtitles for True.Crime.Story.It.Couldnt.Happen.Here.S01E06.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb_Eng_sdh

[dramatic music]

Shamaia didn't come home.

And I knew something is wrong.

As the time went on,
I started to have dreams.

It felt so real.

In the dream,
she was telling me

she was being held
against her will.

And I'm like, "Where are you?
Where are you?"

She was like, "I don't know.

"I'm in this room.
It just has one window.

But I don't see nothing."

She was crying,
and she was like,

"I don't want to be here.
I don't want to be here."

♪

It's "Rockville"
spelled out in rocks.

I like it.

Super pretty.

They take a lot of pride

in this being
a historic district.

I mean, there's signs
on every lamppost.

Rockville was an old mill town.

Uh, a lot of--lot of silk
mills, a lot of woolen mills.

You have mills here.

And they were
a booming industry.

And then on top of the hill,
that's where the owners

would build their mansions,
where they could sit back

and survey the empire
that they'd built.

It doesn't look real.

It looks like a movie set,

like something that you
would see at Disney World.

It was first or second
richest town

in the United States
at one time.

Down below,
you have the workers' housing.

You can see here,
these are little,

you know, soapbox kit houses

that would've been really easy
to put up quickly

back when this community
really had a lot of industry.

Rockville really was
the hub here.

But as time progressed,

certain parts of Rockville
have fallen on hard times.

Rockville became the center
of a lot of problems too:

drug dealing and shootings
and serious crime.

As the town began to change,

less traditional businesses
made their way in.

In 2007, this was a strip club
called Kahoots,

which was a really big draw
to this community.

It was a big party spot.

And so people in town
had pretty strong opinions

about whether it was great
and super fun

or it was an element
of the city

that was creeping into a town
that had fallen on hard times.

There was a young woman
named Shamaia Smith

who was in her early 20s

who would commute
from East Hartford

all the way out here to dance

because it was a lucrative
opportunity for her.

One day, she leaves for work,
but she never makes it home.

What could have happened?

Is she deciding
she doesn't want

to be a part
of this business anymore?

Is she kidnapped?

Or is it something
worse than that?

And for her family, the not
knowing was excruciating.

My name is Monique Frink.

I'm the sister
of Shamaia Smith.

I have four siblings.

I'm the oldest out of everyone.

Shamaia was the youngest.

She always had a smile
on her face.

Somewhat naive, no one did
any wrong in her eyes.

Just because
of the difference in age,

I felt like Shamaia
was my daughter.

That was my baby.

My kids, they love
Auntie Mia.

That's what they call her.

They just always wanted
to be with her

'cause she was just so fun.

Take them to the park.
"Let's go ride bikes."

"Let's go live on the edge
a little bit,

'cause your mom not gonna
let you do this, so..."

You know.

Well, I lived
in my own apartment.

Shamaia lived with my mom
and her dad.

She wanted to go back
to school to do cosmetology.

But in 2007, she was dancing

as a--a exotic dancer.

I didn't approve of some of
the things that she would do,

so she would kind of,
like, hide it from me.

♪

I got the phone call
from my mom saying that,

"Shamaia's not
answering her phone."

I'm like,
"That's not like her."

They said she went to work
and didn't come home.

And I started to call her phone
on my way to my mom's house,

but she never
picked up the phone.

No one is getting a response.

We're reaching out
to friends,

places where we think
that she would be,

but no one's seen her.

So I called the police.

They did tell me
because she was an adult,

we had to wait 48 hours

before they can actually
take any action.

It was a long 48 hours,
but we waited.

And then the next day,
I called them back

and we did
the missing persons report.

It was basically
a waiting game after that.

I think missing person cases,
in all police department,

deserve a great deal
of attention.

But most police departments

don't pursue them
vigorously enough.

I was a police officer,
town of East Hartford,

for 30 years.

Much of that time
was spent as a detective,

a detective sergeant,

and then finally a lieutenant
in charge of detectives.

I always had my hand
in all the cases.

After the weekend, my routine
was to read every report

that flowed
through the department.

That Monday,
I found a particular case,

a missing person,
for Shamaia Smith,

22 years old, who went missing
on the 14th of March.

So I go,
"Why am I learning of this now?

It's cold. It's getting cold."

Candidly, I was upset
that I hadn't been contacted

about this case
over the weekend.

And when I went to the patrol
supervisor, my counterpart,

he said the case was just
a random missing person case

and person would turn up,

and why would I think that
there was anything more to it?

But I knew right away it
required immediate attention.

I needed to find my sister.

So I put my kids in the car,
we drove to Channel 3 News,

and I went
and gave them a picture

because I wanted,
if someone else seen her

that don't know her,
maybe they could've said,

"Hey, we seen here,
we seen her there."

But they was like,
"You know, we can't just

air it out like that
if there's no police report."

And I'm like,
"There is a police report."

But I guess the police
didn't say anything as of yet.

It was very frustrating.

I felt, oh, because
she's an exotic dancer,

she's Black,
she doesn't matter.

They cover
what they want to cover.

The number of Black women
who go missing in our country

is disproportionately higher
than the number of white women

who go missing.

And yet their cases
are less likely to be solved.

But in Shamaia's case,

the lead investigator really
did take this case seriously.

Hi, Lieutenant Stoldt?
- Hello.

Thank you for meeting
with me.

Glad to meet you.

This is the missing persons report.

So the report was filed two
days after she went missing.

Yes.

So I immediately took over
the case as a serious crime.

I don't recall exactly
what raised my red flags,

but I was very certain that
we needed to get to it rapidly,

that we didn't have
any time to waste.

If a person is missing,

the chances are, there's gonna
be a criminal aspect to it.

Were they running
from somebody?

Were they being victimized?
There's so many possibilities.

Yeah.

When we got this case,
it was almost six days later.

In 2007, I was an investigator.
I was very new.

Lieutenant Stoldt
kind of showed me the ropes,

if you will.

First place we're gonna
look at is the home,

anyone that has contact
with that person.

So Shamaia lived at home
with her mother, Gloria,

her father, Barry,
and her boyfriend, Jamel.

Everyone was a suspect
at the time.

They interviewed me.
They interviewed my mom.

They interviewed her dad.
They interviewed my brothers.

They asked a lot of questions
about the boyfriend:

how long they were together.

how was the relationship?

Was he here when she left?

Tell me about the boyfriend.

When we went
to the family home,

Jamel was upstairs
in the bedroom,

and he didn't come down
to talk to the police

or add his contribution
to how he could help us.

He wasn't concerned?

His behaviors of not
showing interest

in finding her
would suggest he's involved.

- So that's a massive red flag.
- Yes.

[dramatic music]

Shamaia goes missing,

and the boyfriend,

Jamel, is not communicating.

Was her family alarmed
by his behavior?

Yes, they did feel it was odd
and they pointed the finger

towards him
that he was involved.

He's living in their home,
and they are suspicious of him.

The police
are suspicious of him.

Well, he doesn't stay there
much longer.

He disappears.
Uh, he leaves the home.

- And is gone?
- Yes.

We were notified
by the family that Jamel

packed up everything
and he left.

We were clearly concerned,

and it's very suspicious, obviously.

We did track him down

and finally had
the opportunity

to interview him.

He said she was supposed
to be picked up

and brought to work.

And so at 3:00,
she walked down the street,

and Jamel never saw
who was picking her up.

So he's the last person
that saw her.

Yes.

Is there anyone
who can confirm Jamel's story

that she was picked up
for work that afternoon?

Yes. Do you mind
if I refer to this map?

- Absolutely, yeah, please.
- Okay.

She didn't have a car and she
didn't have a driver's license,

so she was dependent on people
to give her rides

to and from work.

She lived in East Hartford.

And this is the location
of the Kahoots

in Rockville.
- Okay.

There was a coworker
of Shamaia's

who was apparently
a very close friend,

and she said
Shamaia was getting rides

from a person known
as Silver Dollar.

Had you ever heard
that name before?

No, it's a whole new person.

One of the strippers at
the club had told the family

that Shamaia told her
that Silver Dollar

was gonna give her a ride
to work.

So her friend said

she got a ride
from this Silver Dollar guy.

Were you able
to track him down?

We were able to identify
Silver Dollar

and take a statement from him.

So Silver Dollar said,
"Yes, I came to East Hartford

and I picked her up
on the 14th."

That day.

That day
that she went missing.

"And I took her to Kahoots."

So now he becomes the last
person to actually be with her.

The officers came out here
to verify that,

and we looked at hours
upon hours upon hours of video

captured from their security cameras

and we witnessed
a lot of illicit activity...

- Mm-hmm.
- But we could not find

any video of her

coming into Kahoots
in that time frame.

So his story falls apart
because the video evidence

shows that she never
arrived at work.

Yes.

First impulse would be
that he's lying

and he took her somewhere else.

But it's almost too easy.

What do you mean?

Because it was a red herring.

We looked on the day
prior to being missing,

and we did find that she had
been dropped off at work

24 hours earlier
by Silver Dollar.

His dates were off.

He ended up actually giving her
a ride the night before,

so prior to when
she went missing.

So now you've had
Silver Dollar

fall apart as a suspect.

There's nothing concrete

tying the boyfriend
to her disappearance.

What is the next piece
of the puzzle

for you guys decide to pursue?

Her own phone records.

But you needed
to get a search warrant.

And getting a search warrant
in this case

was very difficult

because there are many people
who didn't believe

that she was
a victim of a crime.

There were many people believed
there was no need for urgency.

So the administration
and other agencies pushed back.

It's a missing girl.

That's got to be really tough,
because you're the person

that's been in the room
with the family.

They didn't have any leads.

They didn't know
where to look.

So I got wary.

Basically took it
into my own hands

and stayed in the room

and trying to, you know,
break into her voice mail.

I was just playing
with different numbers

on the house phone.

I didn't know
what the heck was I doing.

I was just putting 1234, 3456.

I wasn't gonna let it go.

I needed to find my sister.

If it had been
a 22-year-old white girl,

would there have been
more urgency?

Not on my part, but yes.

It would--it would've been
treated differently,

absolutely.

Thank God the family,
they were pretty pushy about

finding out what happened
to Shamaia themselves.

I spent two days trying
to break into the code

for her voice mail

until I got
into her voice mail,

and there was this one message
that stood out to me.

And it was actually the day
she went missing.

The person on the phone said,

"Just wanted to know
if you wanted to hook up."

[dramatic music]

The family was able to access
Shamaia's voice mail,

and there was a message
on there from a guy named Ken.

So we ran a check
on the phone number,

and it came back to Ken Otto.

What do you learn
about him immediately

just from his phone number?

We learn that he lives
in Ellington, Connecticut,

next to Rockville,

a nice quiet neighborhood full
of larger expensive houses.

He's a true businessman.

He built a company himself,

and there were
satellite offices,

so he's well-to-do.

He's married, has children.

He's not the person
that you think might hang out

at strip clubs and calling
exotic dancers on his phone.

So because of who he was
in this small town,

when his name comes up
on your radar,

is there any pushback
within the department

about investigating him?

It did create
a whole different

attitude and treatment.

Now for some reason,
we have to be very careful.

We have to make sure
we're not

offending anyone
or ruffling feathers.

You felt like you had
to investigate quietly

so as to not embarrass anybody?

Uh, I didn't see it
the same way at all.

This is urgent.

I had concern that she was
maybe being held somewhere,

that we might be able
to locate her and...

bring her to safety.
- Mm-hmm.

So we need to go find
Ken Otto and talk to him

and see what he can offer us
regarding Shamaia.

We decided we were going
to take a ride up to Ellington

and go see if we can talk
to Mr. Otto.

So we drive up to the house,
and Mr. Otto opens the door.

His hair
is kind of disheveled.

He said that he had been
in bed for a few days

and he was feeling sick.

And we explained that we wanted
to talk to him in regard

to a missing person case.

He certainly didn't want us
to park our vehicle

in front of his house.

He didn't want us
going into his home.

But he agreed to meet
at the police department.

What does Ken Otto
tell you

about his relationship
with Shamaia?

Ken told the investigators
that he was a person

who wanted
to help other people.

And he went to Kahoots

because there were women
who needed his intervention.

You know, "A nice girl like you
doing in a place like this"...

- Hmm.
- Kind of thing.

He said that he knew Shamaia
and she was a nice girl

and that they were building
their relationship.

March 9th, a week prior
to her disappearance,

I received a call from Shamaia
asking me to meet her.

She pulled up in a cab,
and I asked her,

"Why are you getting
out the cab?

Where you coming from?"

And she's like, "Oh,
one my friends dropped me off

at a 7-Eleven somewhere."

And I'm like,
"Why wouldn't a person

bring you all the way home?"

That just didn't
sound right to me.

She said she was coming
from a friend's house

and the person gave her money,

$500 or whatever, and I'm like,

"What did you have to do
for the $500?"

"I didn't have to do nothing."

She got very defensive.

Mr. Otto did admit
that a week

before she went missing
on the 9th

that they drove to
Asnuntuck College in Enfield.

And she mentioned to him

that she wanted to get
a degree in cosmetology.

He did mention
that he gave her money,

that she was also looking

to try to purchase a car
to be more independent.

The pieces line up,
but this is the game.

This is, you know,
"I'll put you through school.

You'll do what I need
from you."

But he presented it
that this was nonsexual,

that he cared about her
and he was offering

what he could
as a successful businessman

living in Ellington...
- Mm-hmm.

And that this
is what it was all about.

In the meeting
with your investigators,

does he admit that he saw her
on March 14th?

Yes, he does.

He said that he ended up

driving her to Kahoots
to go to work.

He told us that he wasn't
feeling well

and he was--he had been sick,

so he dropped Shamaia off
at the Kahoots

near the front door

and he went home to Ellington

and he was in bed
for three days.

Well, at this point,
you'd already checked

all the security footage
of the Kahoots.

So did it make you doubt your
initial look at that footage?

You want to be cold
and professional

and always double-check,
and so we did.

And we rechecked
and looked at the volumes

of video they had.

We could not find Ken Otto's
truck arriving at Kahoots

and couldn't find Shamaia
coming through the door.

We can't corroborate his story
of dropping her off at Kahoots,

but what we do know
is that Ken Otto

is now the last person
who admittedly is with her.

We realize Ken Otto
is hiding things.

So now we have to find
what he's hiding.

So Investigator Olsen and I
are arranged to meet Ken Otto

and take him for a ride

so he could walk us through
step by step

everywhere he went
with Shamaia.

[dramatic music]

♪

This is Ellington, Connecticut,

a thriving farming community.

Ellington has the space

and clearly
a lot of affluence.

This is the Main Street.

It's a church,
the Historic Society,

and a strip of shops
that looks like a hitching post

from old-timey days.

It's got that safe
Americana vibe to it.

Crime doesn't typically
happen in Ellington.

It's kind of a rural community
of faith-based people.

Ellington was just
where you lived,

but the action
was in Rockville.

No question.
It was all about Rockville.

It's not lost on me

that the thing to do over
in Rockville back in 2007

was go to the strip club

and over here in Ellington,

they proudly display
the classic car shows

and the ice cream social.

It is a really big difference
between the two communities.

♪

During the initial interview
with Mr. Otto,

although he was forthcoming
with information,

we determined that there were
some things that he told us

that weren't
completely accurate.

So Don Olsen and I
picked Ken Otto up

and began the process
retracing the steps

that he claimed happened.

It's important to be specific.

So instead of going
directly to Kahoots...

- Uh-huh.
- It turns out,

the story is now unraveling

that they traveled
into Route 5,

and it was clear the details
of his movements.

They were evolving.

We continued northbound
into Enfield,

and Enfield is where the
Asnuntuck Community College is.

Ultimately, he claimed
that they went around

the side of the building
and parked

and that Shamaia then, uh,

tried to perform

sexual activities with him.

That's a major piece
of information that he admits,

"Okay, I did have
sexual relations with her."

Now he was starting
to get antsy,

and he did offer
what I would call

a bribe or an attempt to bribe.

He basically said something
to the effect of,

"Well, what do I need to do
to make this go away?"

And we were kind of
looking at each other like,

"I don't--I think he's trying
to bribe us."

You know, like, he was looking
to see if we would say,

you know, "Well, hey,
if you give us $10,000,

we'll just forget
this ever happened."

Is he just embarrassed?

You know, a man of his stature

being caught having an affair
with a much younger woman

who he met in a strip club.

Or is he now trying
to use his means

and his influence
to get out from underneath

an investigation
into her disappearance?

Guys have affairs.
Women have affairs.

It happens in life.

But there was nothing
illegal about that.

Whether his wife
was happy with it or not,

I don't know,
we'll leave to others.

Been practicing law
in Connecticut

for approximately 50 years.

Mr. Otto was a family man,

He'd been married
for 33 years.

He had no criminal record.

He's not the type of person
that you would think

would go out and commit
this type of horrific crime.

Ellington is a close-knit community,

and he was well respected
in his own neighborhood.

These are people
that saw him every day.

But I don't think
it was common knowledge

this gentleman of, uh,
I believe, 54 years of age

was having a relationship
of any sort

with this young woman
of 22 years of age.

As the days went by,

my brothers and my mom
still had hope,

but this was around the time

where they had
a lot of trafficking,

so I had this weird dream.

She was being trafficked.

And there was this one window
that she was looking out of.

I kept saying, "Tell me what
you see, tell me what you see."

And she kept saying,
"I can't see nothing."

And I'm like,
"Do you know where you're at?

How long was the drive?"

She just kept saying,

"I have to keep having sex
with all these guys.

I don't want to be here,
I don't want to be here."

I thought that
that was a sign.

We don't know where she is.

But you didn't have
any real evidence

against Ken Otto, right?

Right, but I had done
a little research

and found out that Ken Otto...
- Mm-hmm.

Had a daughter-in-law,
and so I contacted her.

She was very emotional
and upset.

She spoke about
Ken Otto's behavior,

particularly towards women:

inappropriate, dismissive,
and abusive.

So clearly she was afraid
of something.

- She was anxious to hang up.
- Mm-hmm.

But she offered
some information.

Ken Otto owned a large tract
of property, 75 acres.

75 acres
is a big chunk of property.

Yes, it is.

It's a remote area
that's landlocked,

surrounded by other
private property

and a state forest.
- Uh-huh.

And that property
was never brought up by him.

So that was telling that he
was hiding something from us.

This is now something
that we needed

to get resources out there
as quickly as possible.

How do you even
lay eyes on it

if it's landlocked like that?

I had called
the Eastern District

Major Crimes
on several occasions,

trying to get their involvement
in the case

because it was
in their jurisdiction.

But they didn't think
there was a case.

That must've been
incredibly frustrating.

It was--it was
very frustrating.

But I did get the cooperation
of the aviation unit.

[helicopter rotors thrumming]

I was able to get
the state police helicopter up

with Detective Olsen.

[indistinct radio chatter]

And they flew right out--
out to the property.

And then my wife,
who's a detective,

and her partner,
they went out on the ground.

[indistinct radio chatter]

It had snowed
a few days before.

We could see
that there were tire marks

leading into the property
from the main road.

So we could see
there was recent activity.

And then there was a shed,
and there was a large camper.

At that point,
my biggest concern was,

Shamaia could be held against
her will on that property.

But you don't have
a warrant to search it.

No, but when you have reason
to believe someone's life

is maybe hanging by a thread,

you have exigent circumstances.

Exigent circumstances means?

Emergency.
So I made the decision

and directed the officers
on the ground,

"Get into that property
right away

and try to find her."

Okay, so we're going in.

[dramatic music]

[helicopter rotors thrumming]

My partner and I,
we're in the helicopter,

and we're flying
over this property.

And we have a couple
detectives down on the ground.

I directed
that the ground officers

go onto the property

and check those buildings out

and look to see
if we could find Shamaia.

The detectives on foot,
they went through the camper.

Uh, they checked the sheds,
did a quick, you know,

walk around the property,
didn't see anything.

They called back and said,
"There's no sign of her here."

Wow.

How much hope did you have that
she would be in that trailer?

It's a heartbreaker.

♪

I'm going to meet
with Monique,

who is Shamaia's older sister.

And unless you have been

through what their family
has endured,

it's impossible to imagine.

She's a beautiful girl.

Thank you.

Yeah, man, hands on hips.

- [laughs]
- She's an assertive girl.

- Them poses.
- Yeah.

Had Mia disappeared before?

Was that something
that she'd ever done?

No, that's not nothing
she's ever done before.

I was freaking out, 'cause I'm
like, "Something's not right.

My sister is somewhere
being held against her will."

Yeah.

It's just--it's a lot
of weird people out there.

Whoever has her
has her ID

that has her address on it,
her house key.

Did that make you feel unsafe
that someone could just easily

get your family's
personal information?

I was worried about that.

Did the police provide
other information?

They told us that they went
to go have a conversation

with someone
that's a prime suspect,

the last person
to have seen her.

They just said
they have some leads.

Back in '07,
biggest thing at that point

was phone records,

phone tower,
location information.

We found out that on the 9th,

about a week
before, uh, she went missing,

Shamaia's phone
hit a phone tower

across the street
from Otto's property.

So his story about them
going to Asnuntuck College

was inaccurate.

And then on the 14th,
the day of her going missing,

Mr. Otto's phone
hit on the tower

across the street
from his property.

So that showed that he wasn't
home in Ellington, sick.

He was actually
on the property that night.

We're just about
3 1/2 weeks in,

and we have quite
a bit of information,

and Mr. Otto's
our prime suspect.

We just didn't have enough
to get a search warrant

for the property
at that point.

Curt and I both agreed
that consent search

was obviously gonna be
the way to go.

Based upon phone records,
they decided that they wanted

to search his property
up there in Stafford.

My client's public position was
that he had done nothing wrong,

he had nothing to hide,

and he fully cooperated
with the police.

Mr. Otto agrees
to the consent search

on Easter Sunday.

And I contacted
the state police

and I asked them if they were
willing to supply troopers

with cadaver-sniffing dogs
to go out to the property.

So then Don Olsen and I,
we picked up Ken

and continued to the property.

We didn't let on
that we'd already

gotten familiar
with the property.

He's very cocky
and very confident.

I was certain he thought
he was smarter than the police

and he was certain

that he would control
the situation completely.

♪

This is the roadway
to get into the property.

You know, it's a dirt road.

It goes into the woods
in the middle of nowhere.

♪

Yeah, it's been a while.

I had a very bad feeling.

Ken Otto pointed out
that he liked shooting animals

on his property--

woodchucks, skunks--

just killing things

and leaving them out
to decompose.

The property suggested that...

this is a place of terror.

I told you at the time,
I said, "Don, I don't do this,

"but today
I'm carrying a backup weapon,

"and, uh, we need to be
on our toes with this guy

"'cause I have a bad feeling

about what he might try
to do to us."

Right.

So we started kind of
looking around a little bit

and asking him some questions,

and he didn't appear
nervous at all.

As we were talking,
state troopers showed up

with the cadaver-sniffing
dogs.

And that is the point where
Ken showed alarm in his face.

That's when he really knew
that he was dealing with more

than just a couple cops

from the East Hartford
Police Department.

He had to know
it was much larger than that,

and it--and it was, certainly.
- That's right.

Yeah.

As soon as Mr. Otto
saw the dogs,

I just saw all the color
come out of his face.

He went pale and started
to look very, very nervous.

He never saw that coming.

He said, "You guys,
this isn't fair.

You tricked me."

I said to him, "You can revoke
your consent at any time."

The dogs started to go
around the property,

and there was a clearing.

And in the clearing, there was
a--a very large fire pit.

The dogs are hitting
on the fire pit,

and they're also hitting
on the piles of dirt

around the clearing.

Dogs can't indicate
whether it's a human or fox

or--or a rabbit.

[dogs barking]

But they indicated
there were a lot of spots

where things had been killed.

Mr. Otto was on his phone,
and he didn't look very good.

He was shaking, and he said,
uh, "All right, that's it.

I want you guys
off my property."

[dramatic music]

One of the things
that is so valuable

about small towns
and rural areas

is that you live with space.

There's a lot of freedom
in that.

The flip side of that is that

there's also a lot of space
to hide things.

♪

Ken Otto's property,
it was what I characterized

as hell,
someone's little personal hell

that they created,

where they didn't answer
to anybody

and they didn't care
about anything.

But the fact that the dogs

sensed that there was
a lot of death here,

we now have the ingredients

to get that search warrant.

But I was very anxious
that he might do

everything he can
to cover his tracks.

[thunder rumbling]

Did you know that this search
was gonna take place?

I do remember them saying
that they had to get a warrant

and then we had
this big rainstorm,

and it rained for, like,
five days.

[thunder rumbling]

The day we executed
the search warrant,

it was raining.

It was cold,
nasty, rainy, windy.

We got out there
to the property

and found Ken Otto there.

He had taken the backhoe
and smashed his trailer home

and he tried to bury it
in the ground.

So we caused him
to cease and desist

and then conducted
our search warrant.

When we got to the fire pit,

now there had been
more extensive burning.

And they found some--
what appeared to be

the ball portion of--of a foot.

♪

I received
a phone call saying

that I needed
to come home from work

because the detectives
was meeting

with the family at the house.

The detectives came in:

"Um, we're sorry.

"Shamaia's not coming home.

She's deceased."

And everybody just broke down.

And I was like,
"I want to see my sister."

And he was like,

"You don't want to remember
your sister like that."

♪

That broke us,
the way they found her.

We didn't have a body.
We didn't have... anything.

We just had...

pieces.

They said she was
burned for days.

For days.

♪

We had been following
Mr. Otto 24-7.

The day of the arrest warrant,

I'm sitting
in the judge's chambers,

watching the judge
read the report,

and I have my partner
talking to me in my ear

with the team
that's following Mr. Otto.

They were giving us updates
as the judge

is sitting there reading
this lengthy warrant.

He's driving random places,

doing quick turns,
running lights,

all of these things
that are designed

to ferret out the police
that are following him.

They're telling us he's
heading towards the airport.

[airplane engine roaring]

He's pulling
into Bradley Airport.

At that point,
I directed the officer,

"Take him into custody."

Kenneth Otto Sr. may not
walk the streets anytime soon.

Otto was arrested
at Bradley Airport

with cash, pills, and
a newly purchased passport.

He's picked up at the airport
with his passport

and a large sum of money,

but he's also found
with rubber gloves,

condoms, erectile dysfunction medication,

a business card
for an escort service.

And then investigators find
some other items in his bag

which seem
even more suspicious.

We found
a small black satchel.

Inside it, we found
three or four necklaces,

a pair of earrings.

All of the jewelry in there
was old, like, beat up,

maybe some sort of souvenir,

as if this wasn't
the first time

that he's done
something like this.

That was something that we
considered at that point.

I don't think he was
a newbie at this.

I personally think
he'd actually gotten away

with other serious crimes
in his lifetime.

Dozens of people related
to exotic dancer Shamaia Smith

caught a glimpse of the man
accused of her murder.

Man, he shouldn't be able
to get out, nothing.

I don't care what it is.

He shouldn't be able
to even walk the street.

I went up
to the family home,

and one of Shamaia's brothers,

a young man,
probably 14, 15 years old,

who typically had kind of
expressed distrust and anger

towards the police,

I remember that the brother
hugged me.

He just told us,
"Thank you for doing this.

Thank you for arresting the man
that killed my sister."

It was a tear-jerker, and--

but it was--
the good feeling I got is--is,

you know,
we did right by this family.

Relatives admit
this is a tough time.

They keep Shamaia close
by wearing T-shirts

with her photo on it.

How quickly do you go
from searching for her

to fighting for justice?

The same day.
I mean, now the news was there.

Uh, Mr. Otto's going to be
going to court,

pleading not guilty,

and asking
for a jury trial on this.

He denies that he was involved

with the, uh, homicide
of this young lady.

He felt he would be acquitted.

Merely because they find
a body on the property,

his claim is, he wasn't
the only person

that had access, uh,
to that property,

and, uh, so whatever happened,
it wasn't him.

To see him coming
in that courtroom

and he had a smirk on his face

as if, "I'm this big shot,
I got all this money,"

and then he got
these big-shot lawyers,

you know, you thinking,

"He's gonna get away with it."

What was the difference
in the way

the media covered
your sister's disappearance

versus the way
they covered the trial?

Her disappearance
was basically one clip

for maybe two days,
that's it.

Then once you get into,
oh, exotic dancer, Kahoots,

murdered, slain...

Shamaia Smith was reported
missing more than a month ago

when the East Hartford woman
failed to show up

for her job
at Kahoots in Vernon,

a strip club
where the 22-year-old

worked as an exotic dancer.

It was a lot of attention
after that

rather than, "If we could've
got to her sooner,

maybe she would've been alive,"
you know?

I'm pretty sure
he's done this before.

Maybe it is some people
out there

that don't have family
to fend for them

or look for them
or they don't know how.

And in this case,
I feel like he probably thought

that Shamaia didn't have
any family that cared.

That's why he got caught,
because we did care.

♪

To see the town and farms,

it's the postcard
of an America

that we've all heard about
that seems impossible

to think anything bad
could happen down there.

'Cause it's too pretty, right?

But that's not the reality

for a large portion
of America.

And in Shamaia's case,

it was somebody from one
of the brightest,

shiniest households
that did this to her.

Predators know
they can target people

in marginalized communities

and their cases
will not be investigated

and pursued as vigorously.

The only way to change that
is if we collectively say,

"No more."

The solving of their cases
is important to us.

That's how we let
predators know,

"You don't get to work
in the dark anymore.

We're watching."

♪