All language subtitles for True.Crime.Story.It.Couldnt.Happen.Here.S01E08.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb_Eng_sdh

As you can see,
there's, like,

woods everywhere.

You just can't help but have
your eye drawn into the woods.

I remember thinking,
"She's out there somewhere."

[geese calling]

How deep would you go
into these woods?

Well, it was never ending.

You just kept going,
'cause you have a job to do.

What is going
through your head

when you're walking
through these woods?

That today is the day
I'm gonna find my daughter.

Every time I came out here.

I would talk to God and say,

"Please let me find her.
Let me find something."

[dramatic music]

♪

What a cute shop.

I don't know how I fit this
in my bag to take home,

but I know a four-year-old
little girl at home

that would be
real into this guy.

We are in Snow Hill, Maryland,
which is a really small town.

It's only, like, 2,000 people.

It was founded
in the late 1600's,

so Snow Hill predates America.

It's a thriving community,

there's mom and pop shops everywhere,

and people are really, really
proud to come from here.

We're in Snow Hill, Maryland,

the cutest, little town
on the eastern shore.

I mean, it's so little,
you cannot leave the house

without running into somebody
or five that you know.

We have a great community.

We go way back.

A lot of history here.

I was from here,
my father's from here,

his father was from here.

You all work together,
you go to church together.

It's just--you feel very safe.
- [chuckles]

Like I don't, per say,
lock my doors,

so when a young woman
showed up missing,

it scared me because that's
not what this neighborhood is.

In 2007, a young mother
from Delaware,

Christine Sheddy,

came down to this area
and then she went missing.

She completely vanished

and no one knew
what happened to her.

[melancholy music]

Christine had
a really good sense of humor.

She was outgoing.
She was just adventurous.

And when Christine
became a mom,

she wanted to be
the best mom she could ever be.

She became everything
to her kids

that I wish
I could've been to her.

I'm Lynn Dodenhoff,

and I am
Christine Sheddy's mother.

When Christine was little,

I sure wasn't
doing a great job.

My drinking was
getting in the way,

and I was in a couple of
abusive relationship

and she saw a lot of,
you know, the bad in me.

You know,
and that bothers me a lot.

Christine came from
young parents.

Both of our parents
were alcoholics.

That's something
we both struggled with.

Me and Christine,
we were best friends.

We did the outlandish stuff.

Got in trouble.
We weren't the teenage girls

of getting your nails done
and going to the mall.

That was not us.

Christine was so full of life.
She was a goofball.

We got in trouble
with drinking, partying.

We were the cool ones
in school.

In high school Christine
started dating Jimbo.

They really hit it off.

Christine was 19 and
she got pregnant with Haylie.

And when Haylie was born,
Christine bloomed,

she blossomed,
she became a grown-up.

But Jimbo had cancer
and ultimately, he passed.

Christine was
really devastated

after she lost Jimbo.

Me and Steven,
we had gotten married.

We decided we were
gonna stop drinking.

We offered to adopt Haylie

'cause Christine didn't have
the means to look after her.

Christine was lost
for a while.

Then she met
this guy named Levi.

I didn't know him too well,
but she said,

Levi was nice to her
in the beginning.

Levi swooned her.
He treated her like a queen.

With him, she had two boys.

You know,
now she's got three kids,

but Levi wasn't a family man.

He loved those boys,

but he didn't provide
for them.

Steve and I bought the boys
formula, diapers, food

'cause he wouldn't do it.
He was into drugs.

So Christine
was living with Lynn

along with Haylie
and the two boys.

It was close quarters,
but we were doing pretty good.

Steve and I were working.
We had our own business.

Christine would help
with the office work,

but when you have two women,

like-minded women,

in the same house,

you tend to butt heads.

Milk was, like, $3.00
and something a gallon

and the little one would drink,
like, a gallon a day.

Okay, so I just asked her,
I said,

"Can you please, like, maybe
not give him so much milk?

You know, give him
something else to drink."

Well, that went into
a full-fledged fight,

you know, and...
[sighs]

Oh.

She pushed me.
I pushed her.

♪

I said some things,
and she said some things,

and...

then she called her friend
and said, you know,

"I need to get a ride.
I'm not staying here anymore."

Christine had some friends
in Pocomoke, Maryland.

That was Tia and Junior.

Tia and Junior were a couple,
but Tia had two children.

Christine and Tia
hit it off pretty good,

you know, 'cause
they had a lot in common.

Christine and Tia did bond
because they were single moms.

They both had a rough life.

Tia told her that she can
come down and take the boys

and come stay
as long as she wants.

Christine only took
a couple of backpacks

with the kids clothes for,
like, a weekend or whatever.

Clear her head.

♪

And couple weeks later,
I got a phone call saying

that Christine was gone,
but the boys were there.

Like, by themselves.

And nothing was adding up to me

because I knew she would never
leave without her kids.

And that's when I filed
my missing person report.

[clock ticking]

In 2007, I was a detective

with the Worcester County
Sheriff's Office.

Christine was last seen at
a farm in Pocomoke, Maryland,

which is the southern end
of Worcester County,

where she was staying
with some friends.

A uniformed deputy
was dispatched to the farm

to take an initial
missing person report.

The farm is in a very remote,
rural area of the county.

Upon the deputy's arrival,

he was met by the residents
of the farmhouse

and they told the deputy
Christine and her children

had been staying with them
for several weeks

and that on the day of
Christine's disappearance,

they had left the property
to go shopping

and when they returned
Christine was gone,

and they had found

Christine's young children
alone at the house.

[bird calling]

[twangy guitar music]

♪

We're just right over the
Maryland border into Delaware.

This is where
Christine grew up.

It is where her mother, Lynn,
now lives on her horse farm.

I feel deeply for Lynn.

I don't know what I would do
if my child went missing.

I'm gonna go visit her and
learn more about her daughter

and about how
this case unfolded.

♪

- Hi!
- Hi, Lynn.

- How are you?
- How are you?

- Hug?
- We're gonna hug.

Look at this place.

[horse whinnies]
[clicks tongue]

- Would you like to see them?
- Yeah, I would love that.

Okay, let me get a coat.

Yeah, watch out.
There's water.

- Yeah.
- It's nothing special...

- Oh, stop.
- In here.

This is great.

This is Puzzle.
That's Mia.

Hey, Momma.

And then there's Donald.
- Hi.

You spend a lot of time
out here?

I do. Yeah, yeah.

It--it keeps you sane.

You can talk to them and
they don't roll their eyes.

And there's no judgment,
is there, baby?

[horse grunts]

They know when you're hurting

and they just let me know
it's okay.

They have been,
and always will be

part of my healing process.
It's an ongoing thing.

[horse grunts]

Christine,
she's a beautiful girl.

- Oh, my God, she's stunning.
- Yeah.

I wish I could've
done better by her.

I wasn't a good mom.
- Yeah, it's hard.

And you had kids
really young, right?

Mm-hmm, I got pregnant
when I was 16 with my first.

Well, you were still a kid
at that point.

- Yeah, I was. I was.
- A kid with a kid.

- Right.
- Yeah.

After you get the phone call
that Christine is missing,

investigators go out
and check out the farm.

They walked around,

they couldn't see
anything of Christine.

The police did interview
Tia and Junior.

Tia and Junior
told the deputy

that she had departed the farm

and they had no idea
where she was.

As they were looking around,

they found an empty
vodka bottle,

they found a jar of change
that was missing,

and they found a note
left by Christine

saying that she was leaving.

So this is the letter
that Christine left.

"I want to thank you two for
allowing my children and I

to come stay with
you and your family."

The note was left,
money's gone,

alcohol is gone,
so there were things

that looked like she left
under her own free will.

Yes.

We learned that
neighbors to this farm

had trail cameras set up.

The cameras were able to show

Tia and Junior leaving the
property and then coming back.

The camera footage did not show
anyone else coming or going,

be it another vehicle
or Christine.

So they had a timeline

of when the cars
were coming and going.

And did that back up
Junior and Tia's story?

Yes.

Even though the farm
is in an isolated area,

it's only a few miles
to an interstate.

The camera was focused
on a driveway,

so it was entirely possible
that Christine had

walked around the camera
out onto the road.

She could've gone anywhere.

When Christine went missing,

my first suspicion was Levi

was involved with my daughter
Christine's disappearance.

If you stepped out of line
of what Levi wanted

or Levi thought was okay

then it was holy hell.

Christine would deal with
the screaming matches,

the fighting.

With Levi, it was tumultuous

all--all the time.

And, uh, the last time
she came home,

she had black eyes.

Levi had told Christine,

if she ever left with the kids,
he would kill her.

There were criminal charges
filed against Levi

that I saw...

- Mm-hmm.
- And police records.

Well, I had him in court
three or four times, I think.

Levi was definitely a
suspect in her disappearance,

so Levi was questioned.

He said he was at work

during the time of
Christine's disappearance

and he provided the detective
with information

that kind of opened the door
to other possibilities

that Christine may have
just voluntarily walked off.

He had retrieved,
along with her two children,

certain personal items
of Christine's from the farm.

There was a spiral-bound
notebook

that Christine had been using
as a personal journal.

Within the journal
there was poetry,

notes, random thoughts,

there was also a page of--

listing different
support agencies

as well as numbers
for adoption agencies.

That certainly
is a little peculiar.

We submitted a journal entry
by Christine Sheddy,

as well as the letter that
she had left at the farmhouse

to a statement examiner

and he produced
the following report.

"The writing is self-absorbed
and Miss Sheddy's poetry

"indicates that she's
frustrated with her life.

"The word embrace is
a term of welcome and desire.

"I think this is about losing
the life she has presently

and a desire for the unknown
or something new."

That would support the idea
that she left voluntarily.

So police formed
their opinion about

Christine's state of mind
based on these journals.

Did investigators
ever come up and do

an interview with you to learn
more about your daughter?

- No.
- Nothing?

Nothing.
Mm-mm.

I was always calling.
If I heard anything,

I would call and relay it
to the detectives.

And they would
get back with me.

- Yeah.
- Okay, but then there was

kind of a little lull
and I was wondering, you know,

"Hey, I need somebody to,
you know, call me."

So I called down
and I got the supervisor,

Mike McDermott.
- Mm-hmm.

And I said, "Well, you know,

I would like to be kept
in the loop a little more."

And he said, "Let me explain
something to you.

"Your daughter
was a sponge on society

"because of her lack
of work history

and she simply disappeared
on a drunken, drug binge."

I know.
- Oh, God.

How do you say that to someone

who has a missing child?

I just couldn't believe
what I had heard.

And then a couple of days
after I spoke with Mike,

I got this.

"District Court of Maryland
for Worcester County

"arrest warrant for
desertion of a minor child

against
Christine Marie Sheddy."

It's kind of
a slap in the face.

This here just made me
fight harder.

I became interested
in the case shortly after

it began through discussion
with other detectives.

We all knew each other,

small town,
local police departments,

we all talked,
but at that point in time

it wasn't my responsibility
to investigate it.

The supervisor of the case,
Mike McDermott,

he was convinced that Christine

had just ran off
and left her children.

You know, there was
detectives under him

that were good detectives,
but when your supervisor's

controlling the resources
that you have

and the direction
that you're going,

basically forced
these detectives

to go down the path
to prove his theory correct.

[clock ticking]

Is there any
forward momentum?

Is anybody making
any strides in the case?

I called local TV stations,

and I asked them
if they could

put my daughter's picture
on TV.

Christine Sheddy was
last seen on November--

We made up fliers

and we distributed
to Maryland and back.

It would be very fair to say
in this area

that the rumor mill
is a central part

of how information
is transferred between people.

There were literally
hundreds of tips

that were called
or emailed into us.

We had store clerks
calling in,

bus drivers,
distant associates,

people that had gone
to high school with her.

♪

There were some tips
and stuff coming in.

Nothing came of it,
but I did my own investigation.

I met Tia and Junior's
neighbor.

She's a very sweet woman.

She said, "Lynn, you do realize

there's another guy
living in that house."

- Wait, what?
- Yes.

There was another guy
living in the house.

I know.
- Were police aware of him?

Not until I told them.

- They had no idea?
- No.

The neighbor told me,
Justin was Tia's cousin.

When the police came...
- Uh-huh.

He would disappear.

He would hide or whatever,
you know?

And Tia and Junior never
said anything about him.

So it looks like
Tia and Junior

have been
covering for this kid.

Well, nobody said,
"You know, Justin's here.

Hey, you want
to talk to Justin?"

Nobody said that.
- Mm-hmm.

When I found out, I called
Detective Kagan and I told him.

And I said, "There's another
guy living there."

He goes, "No, there's not."

And I said, "Yes,
you need to go out there."

No one had mentioned that
this person had even existed.

By the time we learned
that Justin had indeed

been staying at the residence,
he had left the state

and moved to Texas
with his father.

That immediately
raised red flags.

We went back to the farm.

There were multiple
searches done.

We used cadaver dogs,
we did grid searches.

We are looking for
any signs of Christine,

signs of unusual activity
on the property.

One day, I called down
and they said,

"Oh, they're out at
the property doing a search."

[clock ticking]

So I brought a toothbrush
and a hairbrush

with, you know, Christine's DNA
for a DNA sample.

So I went down there

and they had a Maryland state
helicopter out there,

and cadaver dogs.
[dog barks]

So I walked up with
the toothbrush and hairbrush,

and I handed it off
to the police.

Okay.

And I remember hearing
one of the dogs bark,

but then nothing,
you know, came of it.

Detective Kagan was active,
but the supervisor,

Mike McDermott, he didn't want
this investigation.

I think it was easier
for him to say,

"I did everything that I could.

"We did searches,
we did this, we did that,

and I had a warrant issued
for her arrest."

And as a result of that,
interest starts to--to move on.

The case starts to grow cold.

I was sitting here going,
"Okay, what can I do?"

Yeah.

And then a friend of mine
called me up.

And he said, "Lynn,
there's a blog called

"'the Pocomoke Tattler.'

You need to
get ahold of Stephanie."

I didn't know what a blog was,

but I got in contact
with Stephanie Burke.

Lynn reached out.

She sounded really
nice and articulate

and a very concerned mom.

And she told me all of this

that had happened
to her daughter.

I said, yes.
I said, you know,

we're a local blog
and we talk about things

that happen within
and around Pocomoke City.

Absolutely, I'm going to
put this on the front page.

Come to find out,
her and her husband,

were friends with
Mike McDermott and his wife.

- Oh, interesting.
- Yes, the supervisor.

I knew Mike McDermott
personally from church,

and I called him and asked him
what the deal was.

And his first response
to me was,

"Stephanie, you would never
associate with those people."

And I was flabbergasted,

and I said,
"Why would you say that?"

And he said,
"They are bad news."

[laughs]
It was just

unbelievable to me that

I could but--know somebody
that could be so callous

to express these things
about this family

that he had no clue about.

So I told Lynn, "You let me
know anything you find out,

and I'm gonna publish it
for you."

And in a small area like that,

I got the word out
really quickly.

As soon as we post something,
there would be replies.

We were just alerting
the community.

If somebody does something,

usually somebody
knows something.

We started digging,
so I guess that makes me

an internet sleuth,
but I didn't know that then.

[chuckles]

I was reaching out
to everybody.

At the time it was Myspace.

I pretty much taught myself
how to do it.

It's just you have to network.
It was pretty simple.

You hear a name,
say Tia Johnson,

and I'd go to her page.

You check out their friends

and then you
hit their friends up.

And they would tell me stuff.
It was incredible.

[keyboard clacking]

People started
pointing fingers

at Tia and Junior
very quickly.

They had been
in a lot of trouble.

There was none of
that running away stuff

that Tia and Junior and them
were talking about.

It was a lot of
dark stuff on there.

What was that feeling

the first time
someone wrote you back?

It was great.
I was getting information.

- Yeah.
- You know?

And as I got information,
I would send it to the police.

Do you feel like
the more active you got--

were they receptive to it

or did they start
to shut down on you?

They didn't like me
doing their job,

but I wasn't gonna stop.

As time went on,
I was just wracking my brain

trying to figure out where
she was and what had happened.

The farm is on 68 acres
and it's just woodland.

Some places were wet,
you know, and--and dense.

I had to have been out there--

God, countless amounts of time
just searching on my own.

Snowing, raining, hot.

You're going past these woods
and you look in the woods

thinking could she be there?

♪

I couldn't imagine
standing up to these forces

that she was up against.

She just kept moving.

Lesser women would've given up
a long time ago.

When Christine went missing,

we lost the house,
the business, everything

'cause I couldn't
help my husband.

He said,
"Lynn, I need your help."

You know,
'cause he was falling behind.

I said, "I can't help you."

And I could not help him

'cause I knew
I had to find my daughter.

That's hard.

How did you find the strength
to keep going?

Well, Christine
had an older brother.

That was Michael,
he was just a sweet, sweet boy.

One day,
when he graduated school,

he went to a party
and all of a sudden a big fight

spilled out of the house
and he come around,

you know, the building
and somebody pointed at him.

And he said,
"That's the guy that hit Don."

He wasn't even in there,

so they piled on him
and beat him to death.

I'm so sorry, Lynn.
[sighs]

Eventually, the police
had four arrested.

There were six altogether,
but they didn't have

enough evidence
to prosecute the other two.

And the prosecuting attorney,
he said,

"We got four.
What more do you want?"

And I remember
not saying a word,

and that ate at me for years.

So when Christine went missing,

I promised I would not
not say anything anymore.

[clock ticking]

[keyboard clacking]

There were skeletal remains
of a petite

woman that was found
in Westminster,

so I called my cops...
- Yeah.

And told them about it

because I had given them
the toothbrush and stuff,

so the DNA should've
been on file.

But something told me
to go one step further,

so what I did is
I got the number

of the officer in charge
of that case,

and I called her.

I told her who I was.

She said, "I don't want
to point any fingers

"at another police agency,

but there is no DNA
for your daughter on file."

They never turned it in.

It wasn't Christine, but--

It's just such
a betrayal of trust.

During the time,
it just didn't seem

that anything was happening.

With the "Tattler" blog,

we covered the story
for a little over two years,

then I called Lynn and told her

that she needed to speak to--
with Shawn Sarver.

He had helped me

with a special investigation
over election fraud,

and I saw in him
an honesty and integrity

that I hadn't seen

with the local law enforcement
that I had talked to.

And thought if anybody could
help with Lynn's case,

he could.

[sparse Western music]

♪

We're heading into town here
to meet with Shawn Sarver

who was an investigator
for the state's attorney.

He heard Lynn's story
and got involved,

and I'm very much looking
forward to hearing his take

on this investigation from
law enforcement's perspective.

♪

Shawn, hi.
- Hi, how are you, Hilarie?

- It is so nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

Was there any time that
you took to decide whether

you were gonna get involved
or it was pretty quick?

Oh, it was quick.
When Lynn discovered, um,

that DNA had not been entered
for her daughter's case.

So they absolutely
lied to her?

Absolutely lied.

What...
[sighs]

They claim they lost it.

So as part of your special
investigator powers,

you can take over
an investigation

from a police department
if you believe that

there's malfeasance or
anything going on in the case,

so that's what I did.

I went up to Worcester County
Bureau Investigation

and grabbed the file and
took it to the office and home

and started looking through it.

What are the first things
that pop out to you?

There were some tips
that were called in

that weren't followed up on.
- Really?

But there were gaps in it
and pieces of information

that could've been
followed up on that weren't.

And most of it
was supplied by Lynn.

What was the reaction
to Lynn?

I think that they
had developed a, um,

a dislike,

you know, for Lynn
because she was hounding them.

- Mm-hmm.
- And forcing them to work.

And you know,
they would ignore her calls.

What was the working theory
at the time?

The working theory
at the time, um,

was basically that

Christine probably
just ran away.

Once you were able to pore
through all of those files,

what did your gut
tell you had happened?

She was murdered.

[clock ticking]

I was online

and something came in.

I had somebody
get in touch with me

and say, "Lynn, you've got
to get on this one.

"It's called 'Tennessee Topix'.
It's a blog in Tennessee."

She said,
"There's somebody down there

talking about Junior."

I'm looking at this thread

and this one girl saying,
"Well, I know Junior.

You know,
he's a really nice guy."

Her name was Kim.

I got on there,
and I told her who I was.

I said, "I just want you
to be really careful."

And I gave her my number.

And one day,
I'm going down the road,

I get a phone call from Kim.

I pull over and she says,

"I just want to let you know
that I have a letter

from Junior telling her
to get in touch with me."

Junior was in Tennessee
and was arrested for arson.

He was looking at
a lot of time,

so the only bargaining chip
he could find

was through Kim
to get in touch with me.

He said if I get him out of
Tennessee and back to Maryland,

he would give me what I've been
looking for for over two years.

Once you're in charge
of the investigation,

what kind of information
was Lynn bringing you?

She was networking
a lot on social media

and she was keeping herself
in touch with key players.

The big break in the case comes

when Lynn receives a letter
from Junior.

So what does this letter say?

"Write me back ASAP
on this one, okay?

Please!"

He said, "Tell her I said
to get me out of here

and bring to Maryland and I
will give her what she wants."

Then all caps,
"I didn't do it!"

[sighs]

I mean, this is just a bomb.

This is just
a detective's dream.

- Yeah.
- And of course,

you get information like that

and you have to act
really fast.

♪

I flew out to Tennessee
with some other detectives

and the state's attorney
to speak with Junior

to find out what exactly
he knew about Christine.

My name is Mike Farlow.

I'm the assistant
state's attorney

in Worcester County, Maryland,
here in Snow Hill.

When investigators
get into the jail cell,

one of the first things
that Junior says is,

"Look, I didn't kill Christine,

but I know where she's buried
and I know who did it."

The state's attorney,
Joel Todd,

and Junior's lawyer
enter into an agreement

where if Junior gave
information to the state

regarding the location
of Christine,

what had actually happened,
agree to testify,

and most importantly,
pass a polygraph test

to be able to verify
the information

then he wouldn't be prosecuted
for any of the murder charges.

I remember the state's
attorney called me.

He said, "He's willing
to tell us where Christine is."

Do you know
how awesome that was?

[shakily inhales]

At that point in time
with the agreement negotiated,

Junior goes ahead and
he starts telling the story.

Junior tells the investigators
that Justin and Christine

had had a brief relationship

while the two of them
had been living there.

This day,
he and Justin and Christine

all had a party
behind the house.

They had started drinking,

that they had started
wrestling around some,

and then there was an argument
that had occurred

that Justin had pushed her
to the ground

and Christine got very upset,
according to Junior,

and she ran off
into the woods.

Junior says
he followed Christine,

and as he described it,

they began having
consensual sex in the woods.

Junior went on to tell us
that while this was occurring,

Justin walked up,
saw what was going on,

and began yelling at Christine.

Junior said that he didn't
want to get involved in

a domestic disturbance
between the two

and he started walking away.

He said that he saw that
Justin was holding a shovel.

When he left the area
and went back up to the house,

he describes hearing
multiple thuds,

almost like a bat
hitting a softball.

A few minutes later,
he went back into the woods.

He discovered that Christine
was dead, beaten to death,

and Justin was
standing near the body.

Junior went on
to tell us that

Tia ended up arriving back
at the farm soon thereafter.

And later that evening,
when it got dark,

he and Justin took Tia's car

and they brought
Christine's body

and they put her
into the back of the trunk.

And they ended up loading
Tia's children into the car,

Tia, Junior, and Justin,

with Christine in the trunk,
drove to Snow Hill.

They decide that
they're gonna drive her

to a place
called The River House Inn

that Junior and Tia
both used to work at

because they knew that it was
closed for construction.

They knew that there wouldn't
be anybody around.

And according to Junior,

Tia and the kids
go right to sleep

after they break into
a guest cottage.

And that's when
he and Justin go down

to bury the body right next
to the guest cottage.

Junior is gonna end up
going free for this,

but he's gonna help us
get the guy

that we believe did it,
who is Justin Hadel.

But then his story
starts changing a little bit.

It's no longer just that he had
consensual sex with Christine.

All of a sudden,
he's telling investigators

that when Justin sees them,

uh, that they start
having a threesome.

Once they take
Junior's statement,

after this interview,
as an investigator,

when you hear these details
that are offered up,

what does that look like
to you?

I'm asking if you believe them.

Because the deal Junior signed

was that if he lies
about anything...

- Correct.
- He can be sent back

to Tennessee or he could be
tried for other crimes here.

Correct.

Do you
think it was consensual sex?

I don't--I don't know.

I mean, for me...
[chuckles]

It feels like they raped her.

You know, this whole story
of play fighting

and sleeping
with both of them...

Right, yup.

- Is far-fetched to me.
- Yeah.

I mean--well, yeah, that's--

it's covering his--

covering their tracks.

Come up with some sort of
an excuse that if she's found,

if the DNA is located there,

then, you know,
this explains it.

Yup.
- [sighs]

Ultimately, um,
he convinced investigators

that he had
accurate information...

Uh-huh.

On where her body
would be found, um,

and then, uh,
he drew them a map.

- He drew you a map?
- Yes. Yup.

- Do you recognize this place?
- Yes.

Yeah, it's, uh,
the River House Inn,

actually located in Snow Hill.

They walked around comparing
the map that Junior had drawn

with the River House Inn property

and got ready to start digging
and excavating

to see if Junior
is telling the truth.

This is the River House Inn
Bed & Breakfast,

the location that was depicted
on the map that Junior drew.

And interesting side note,

the red building over here
is the courthouse

uh, which housed my office

and the state's attorney's
office at the time.

And the sheriff's department
is actually

in the rear of that building,
so we had direct view.

- You could throw a rock.
- You could throw a rock.

That's insane.

Junior says, "This is where
I've put Christine."

It's at the rear
of the property.

Take a walk.

Behind the main building,
the last house on the left,

this is where he identified

where the body
would be located,

and he puts and X there.

Right here is--
is where we start digging.

[clock ticking]

Once we were able
to locate the area

we believed
Christine's body was buried,

we had forensic investigators
that came in

and started a excavation.

So I said, "Well,
I want to be down there."

We asked Lynn to stay
in a hotel nearby, uh,

and she had a direct phone line
to the state's attorney,

myself, and other detectives.

Forensic digs are very slow,
very tedious.

You're scraping off
inches of layers of soil

and running them
through a sieve.

So as investigators are
digging and digging,

and the sun is starting to set,
it's already a cold day,

but it's getting colder
and everybody is wondering,

"Are we gonna find her or not?"

And I think there
was a point there

where everybody
was starting to wonder

if we had been lied to,

but the dig team,
uh, continued to dig.

And then we heard somebody
say they got something.

And, uh, when we came over,

I could see a tennis shoe
down at the bottom,

and you could that there

was obviously human remains,
um, still inside the shoe.

[discomfiting music]

♪

I couldn't even tell you

how many times
I've driven past this.

You know,
she was here all along.

It feels so arrogant...

Right.

And audacious--

I can still see
the courthouse from here.

Yup.

And what's really frustrating
is that no one

would have ever figured it out
if it hadn't been for Lynn.

I remember they all came in.

They said, "We found her shoe."

So they knew that they had her.

Two years, three months,
and seven days of fighting

came to an end that day.

I just wanted my daughter back,
and I got her back.

I believe Christine would've
gone on to do great things.

There's not a day that goes by
I don't think about her.

Christine was one
that always helped others

even though she didn't
have it herself.

She could make a bad day
turn around quick.

Finally,
Lynn gets some finality,

and the state's
attorney's office

was able to be Lynn's voice
in front of a jury.

Justin ended up pleading
guilty to first-degree murder,

got a life sentence,

but all
but 30 years suspended.

Junior had given information,
where Christine was located,

but Junior failed
the polygraph test.

At that point,
it was clear that

he was involved
in the murder itself.

He ended up pleading guilty
also to first-degree murder

and got life,
but 30 years suspended.

Tia's initial story
was that she didn't know

that Christine was in the car,

she didn't know she was dead,

but ultimately, Tia was
sentenced to five years

on accessory after the fact

and ten years on burglary.

The only reason
that she only got five years

on the accessory
after the fact,

is because that was the maximum
allowed by law at the time.

Tia got more time for
the breaking and entering

than the accessory
after the fact.

It made me feel
something had to change.

Just like Lynn fought to get
Christine's killers convicted,

she fought tooth and nail
to get the legislature

to change that law to
increase the maximum penalty.

I was really, really proud

when I stood in line

and got behind
the governor of Maryland

as he signed
the Sheddy-Bennett Act.

My daughter's name lives on.

♪

We can all learn some
lessons from Lynn

about tenacity and about
just never giving up.

You know, if Lynn Dodenhoff
came from a well-to-do family,

you know, if she lived in
one of these mansions in town,

I don't think she would've
been dismissed as easily.

What is remarkable about Lynn

is that even when
she was proven correct,

she didn't try
to burn anyone down,

she got active.

And she started
getting laws passed,

so that no other families
would have to deal with

the same set of circumstances
that she dealt with.

And that ripple effect
really matters.

Lynn Dodenhoff has been able
to protect other people

from the same fate that
she and Christine experienced.

♪