Original subtitles

♪♪

-The wife of a prominent businessman

is found deceased in her hotel room.

-She didn't have bullet wounds or stab wounds.

There was no obvious method of death.

-We didn't find anything that would indicate foul play.

-However, there was evidence

of cocaine in her system.

-When we found out that she had died that night,

it left a huge emptiness with all of us.

[ Sniffles, sighs ]

-What seems like an accident gets a second look

when investigators uncover a troubling pattern.

-We found out that several other people

that he's been with died in unusual circumstances.

-These deaths were ruled as accidental and undetermined.

-That's a red flag.

-A possible survivor surfaces

that leads police to something more sinister.

-I have never felt such evilness in my life.

[ Voice breaking ] I felt so responsible.

-You gotta wonder,

were we actually dealing with a serial killer?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Just after 10:00 a.m.,

Detroit emergency services receive a call from security

at an upscale Detroit hotel.

A man's wife has been found deceased in a guest room.

Soon after, officers arrive to secure the scene.

-When I arrive at the scene,

I noticed a guy down the hall sitting there.

One of the officers told me,

"That's the guy that his wife died."

-The man is Ed Amos,

the person who alerted hotel security to call police.

-We learned that the deceased's name

was Roberta Amos --

everybody called her "Bobbe" --

and she was Ed Amos's wife.

-Detectives enter the room,

where Bobbe's body is lying on the bed.

-When I went into the room,

there were indications

that people had been partying there --

empty drink glasses, cigarettes,

those types of things.

-She didn't have bullet wounds or stab wounds

or blunt force trauma --

anything like that

that would suggest any obvious method of death.

-The bottom sheet had a huge damp area on the sheet.

-It was soaked.

It appeared like there was a lot of water

that had somehow gotten under her body

with no real explanation to it.

♪♪

-It could be bodily fluid. We didn't know at that time.

-With little to go on,

investigators speak to Ed Amos,

who appears to be in shock over the death of his wife.

♪♪

-He seemed kind of cold.

Not a tear -- nothing.

But that can be normal in these circumstances.

Ed Amos told me that he didn't know what happened.

-He says that when he went to sleep,

Bobbe was still up.

-But when he woke up a little before 10:00 a.m.,

Bobbe was deceased,

and that's when he then called the front desk for help

and security notified the police.

-Ed reported that they were from Indiana,

specifically the Anderson area,

but they were in Detroit

for a Christmas party

for his new financial company.

-That business was run out of the Detroit area.

He said that's why the Christmas party

was held in Detroit that night,

and the company had reserved several rooms.

-Ed Amos tells police that he and Bobbe

partied with employees until around 4:00 a.m.,

when they went back to their room alone.

-Ed made the admission

Bobbe had brought cocaine to Detroit from Indiana

and that they had been doing cocaine in the room.

♪♪

-Ed admitted that he had done some cleanup.

He didn't want to have any cocaine there

when the police got there.

But Ed -- other than having done cocaine with her,

he claimed he hadn't anything to do with her death.

-After speaking with Ed Amos,

investigators do not find

any evidence of drugs in the hotel room,

but they do observe an item

that may provide a second account

of what happened to Bobbe that night.

-There was a camera sitting on the bedside table.

The minute I saw the camera,

I said we got to get that film that was in it developed

to see if there was any evidence to be had.

At that time, we were looking at it

as a possible accidental overdose.

-As police finish up at the crime scene,

the family of Bobbe Amos learns of her tragic death.

-We got the call that there was an emergency

and we needed to go to my mom's house.

And so we went to my mom's house,

and she was crying.

And that's when we found out that she had died that night.

And just hearing that,

all your emotions --

"What if? What if? What if? Why? Why? Why?"

And it left a huge emptiness

with all of us.

♪♪

I didn't think I would do this.

[ Sniffles, sighs ]

♪♪

-Bobbe grew up in Anderson, Indiana,

just a 4-hour drive from Detroit,

in a loving, middle-class family.

-I was the oldest, and then Bobbe came.

We were 13 months apart.

And then my brother came 14 months after Bobbe.

Bobbe and I -- we were just best of friends.

We danced when we were little,

and we would just Twist our waist off.

♪♪

As Bobbe grew up, she was beautiful.

She had dark, curly hair

and just a smile.

She was kind and just a fun person to be around.

She was the life of the party.

-After an idyllic childhood, Bobbe graduates high school,

skips collegiate life, and goes to work.

-Back then, everybody worked for GM,

and Bobbe --

she started working at General Motors,

and that's how she met Ed.

-Ed was also from Anderson,

and he came from a family that was relatively well-to-do.

♪♪

-Everybody knew Ed. Everyone knew the family.

Ed was an executive in General Motors.

He treated everybody well,

never allowed anyone to pay for anything.

-He wanted people to know he had money.

Ed drove a Cadillac.

He had a Rolex and was always dressed to the nines.

He liked to live that lifestyle.

-Ed was very charismatic, and he was so gregarious.

Bobbe loved that.

She loved playing golf and going to eat

and, you know, going to the parties.

Bobbe fell in love.

He swept her off her feet, literally.

-In early 1993, after two years of dating,

Bobbe surprises her family

with news that she and Ed are getting married.

-We were all apprehensive.

We, of course, welcomed him

and were, you know, warm and kind.

But he had a reputation

at General Motors.

He dated a lot of women.

We knew that he had a past.

-Ed had previously been married two times

prior to Bobbe's marriage to him.

-But I had to be happy for her

because she was just exuberant.

And you felt the joy.

-She didn't have to work anymore.

They went on a lot of vacations together.

Money was never an issue for them.

She lived a high life.

♪♪

-Sadly, less than two years later,

Bobbe's joy is cut short by her tragic death.

-That night, we found out she was gone.

Ed had come back from Michigan.

He was upset, distraught.

We didn't know how she had died that night,

and we needed to know what happened that night.

-The next morning, Bobbe Amos's body is brought in for autopsy.

-The autopsy didn't find

any defensive wounds

or indicators that she had been smothered.

There were no injection sites found.

They didn't find anything that would indicate foul play.

♪♪

-The autopsy showed that,

although Ed said that Bobbe was doing cocaine,

she had no cocaine presence at all in her nasal passages.

-However, the medical examiner

does discover something surprising

that backs up Ed's story.

-There was evidence

of cocaine residue

in her vaginal cavity.

♪♪

That's not expected,

but the method of ingesting cocaine can vary

depending on the person.

-She had fluid in her lungs,

which is sometimes indicative of an overdose.

-The manner of death was ruled as undetermined,

but it was reasonable to suggest

that this may have been just an overdose accidentally.

There were going to be additional testing,

specifically toxicology reports,

that would take weeks.

♪♪

-Detectives reach out to Bobbe's family

to provide an update on their investigation.

-After the autopsy,

we talked with Bobbe's family,

and nobody understood

how this type of thing could happen.

-[ Sighs ] You had to know my sister.

She enjoyed the party scene,

but Bobbe didn't do drugs.

♪♪

How would they have gotten into her system?

Because she would not have done them willingly.

-That information made us start looking a little bit harder

at what the real truth was in all this.

♪♪

-Did she do cocaine or not?

Is this an accidental overdose,

or somebody drugged this woman?

♪♪

-We found out Ed was not gonna derive

any life-insurance proceeds from Bobbe.

There is a financial angle to this.

-He's looking at a huge financial hit.

-Bobbe had found out that his business trips

were really not just business trips.

-That caused her to be suspicious.

-I told her, "You need to be very afraid.

I think you're in danger."

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-In early December 1994,

police continue to investigate

the mysterious death of Bobbe Amos,

found deceased in a hotel room

after her husband's company Christmas party.

-A day or two after Bobbe's death,

we were looking at it as,

you know, a possible accidental overdose

pending the results of toxicology reports.

But because Bobbe's family told us

that she didn't use drugs,

we started delving into it a little bit more.

-Detectives begin by questioning any possible witnesses

from the night of the party.

-The investigation was able to interview

Ed's employees

and other people

who attended the Christmas party.

-When asked about drug use at the party,

they didn't admit to any cocaine being used

in their knowledge.

People had related to us

that a bunch of them were partying for a while

and that Ed and his wife, Bobbe,

had gone back to their room

at about 4:00 in the morning.

-That would be consistent with Ed's story.

Also, there was no suggestion

Bobbe and Ed weren't getting along.

-Basically, nobody knew anything,

and some people --

they didn't want anything to do with this.

I think part of their reluctance

was they didn't want to be accused

of being involved in -- in narcotics.

♪♪

-Among them was one of Ed's employees,

a fellow by the name of Daniel Porcasi.

-Porcasi said he didn't know anything about Bobbe,

but he was a little bit skittish.

I got the opinion that maybe he was hiding something

about Bobbe's death.

♪♪

-With no witnesses from the party

providing any new information,

detectives turned to the camera found on the bedside table

next to Bobbe's body,

hoping it may contain evidence of her final hours.

-We had our film lab process the film that was in it,

and all it was was pictures of the people

at the Christmas party.

The one picture, there was a single guy.

He was by himself, but nobody knew who the guy was.

♪♪

-Investigators find it unusual

that no one claimed to know this lone individual

that was at their private party.

-I was sitting at my desk, and I had the pictures spread out,

and one of my partners happened to walk by my desk,

and he took the picture to show to some other detectives.

And an hour later, he came back with a picture.

He says, "The guy's name's on the back of the picture."

♪♪

Darrell Robertson.

♪♪

-This guy at the party that they can't identify --

he turned out to be a well-known drug dealer.

-I found he had been just picked up

for distribution of cocaine

and was actually in custody,

so I had him brought to headquarters,

where I could interview him.

When I first sat down and told him

what I wanted to talk to him about,

he said he didn't have anything to say.

And I said, "Well, if you're the person

that supplied the cocaine

that might have caused death,

as far as this case goes,

you can be a defendant,

or you can be a witness."

♪♪

-He was concerned he was gonna get jacked up

on homicide charges,

so he decided that it was prudent to talk.

♪♪

-And that's when he admits

that he was at the party to sell cocaine.

♪♪

-He indicated that he had sold Ed Amos

a half an ounce of cocaine

and Ed had paid him $200 cash.

♪♪

The importance of identifying Darrell Robertson

and the fact that he delivered the cocaine to Ed Amos

on the day of the party,

as Ed had said that Bobbe had procured the cocaine

and brought it with her from Indiana.

♪♪

And then, before we figure out the next move,

we started getting phone calls

about the death of Bobbe.

♪♪

-When word gets back to Anderson

that Bobbe Amos has died mysteriously in Detroit,

a lot of people started discussing Ed Amos and his past.

-We received several calls from people

indicating that you should really look into her husband,

Ed Amos,

'cause this is his third wife

that's died under unusual circumstances.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Within a few weeks of the death of Bobbe Amos,

as they await toxicology results,

Detroit police receive information

that could be crucial to the case.

-We started getting phone calls

from Anderson, Indiana,

that Ed's two prior wives died

under unusual circumstances.

So I called Anderson Police Department,

and they connected me with Mike.

-My first contact with Pat was by phone.

We were able to confirm

that both his first two wives had died.

-So, a little over three weeks after Bobbe's death,

I went down to Indiana

and we started delving into it a little bit more.

♪♪

-Police learn that in 1965,

22-year-old Ed Amos married his first wife,

23-year-old Saundra Heard,

in Anderson, Indiana.

-At the time of Saundra's death,

I was a detective

in the Anderson Police Department

for probably two months.

Ed just started at General Motors,

and Saundra was a schoolteacher.

Ed and Saundra --

they'd been married for 15 years when she died.

♪♪

-On the night of January 24, 1979,

Anderson police receive an emergency call from Ed Amos.

He tells them that he found his wife deceased

on the floor of their bathroom.

-When the police officers arrived with the EMTs,

they confirmed that she was dead.

♪♪

They didn't see any signs of a struggle,

but she's got a head wound.

Ed tells the authorities

that she fell and hit her head.

-Ed's basic statement

was that his wife had been out drinking

and then, when she came home, she had wine with Ed.

She went upstairs to get ready for bed,

and, a little while later, he hears a "thunk."

And he says he thought it was the dog jumping off the bed,

so he didn't go up immediately,

but when he did go up, he found her unresponsive.

♪♪

-There was an autopsy conducted,

and the toxicology report indicated

that there was, in fact,

alcohol in her bloodstream.

That would be consistent with Ed's claim

that Saundra had been drinking.

At the time of Saundra's death,

there was no reason for the police to suspect

any foul play, given the evidence,

so the cause of death was ruled

as accidental.

♪♪

-In 1980, just over a year after Saundra's death,

Ed marries his second wife, Carolyn Traylor,

-There was the suspicion that he was dating Carolyn

while he was still married to Saundra.

-They met through General Motors.

They got together and moved to Henry County,

not too far away.

-The marriage lasts nine years,

until the night of April 6, 1989,

when the Henry County Sheriff's Office

receives another call from Ed Amos.

-When Henry County Sheriff's Department responded,

they found Carolyn on the floor.

♪♪

Ed had told the police on this particular night

he and Carolyn had gone out.

They came back to the house.

Carolyn was still having wine,

and she retired to get ready for bed.

-Ed told the responding officers

that she went upstairs to get ready for bed,

and he said, "I heard a thunk on the floor up there.

I thought it was the dog jumping off the bed."

-At some point in time later,

Ed went in to check on Carolyn

and found her on the floor

unresponsive.

♪♪

-At Carolyn's autopsy,

the coroner is unable to find any conclusive evidence

as to how she died.

-The autopsy didn't reveal anything

as to the cause of death,

so, as a result, the death was ruled

at that point in time as undetermined.

♪♪

-We've got more than one police agency involved.

You've got Anderson dealing with the first wife's death,

and now you've got Henry County

dealing with the second wife's death.

-At the time of Carolyn's death,

we did make contact with Henry County,

but there was no shared information

before Bobbe's death.

Ed was considered a possible suspect,

but the investigation just dried up --

became a cold case.

♪♪

-When we were looking back at everything in 1994,

it was uncanny,

his accounts to responding officers

at two different scenes years apart,

with the same verbiage in each report.

"We were having a drink. She went upstairs.

"I heard a thunk...

and I thought it was the dog jumping off the bed."

Same thing both times.

After that, we felt that he could be involved

in the murders of his first two wives.

♪♪

-You lose one wife, it's a tough situation.

You lose two, that's even tougher.

But three times?

That's a red flag.

-After digging deeper into Ed's background,

detectives realize it wasn't just his wives

who died under suspicious circumstances.

-A few months before Carolyn's death,

Ed had been living with his mother

for a few weeks.

She was an elderly woman.

She lived alone, and, at some point in time,

he called and reported that his mother was deceased.

♪♪

-There was no autopsy performed on Ed's mother

because of her age.

She was in her later 70s,

so they put it down as sudden natural death.

-A reasonable person's got to look at the big picture and say,

"You got this one person that all these stories --

Something's not right."

-You got to wonder

whether you're actually dealing with a serial killer

or somebody that is just unbelievably unlucky.

-As police consider

that these accidental deaths may actually be murders,

they discover a possible common motive -- money.

-During the investigation,

we found that Ed had received

$25,000

from a life-insurance policy

regarding his first wife, Saundra's, death.

Ed had received $400,000

in life-insurance funds

from Carolyn, his second wife's death.

And regarding his mother's death,

he received $1.3 million

that he split with his siblings.

-Ed was making pretty decent money,

but he liked to live that lifestyle.

I think everybody had that impression

that Ed lived maybe beyond his financial means.

-Police want to know if Bobbe also had

a life-insurance policy going to Ed.

Not wanting to tip him off about their growing suspicions,

they reach out to Bobbe's family for information.

-Talking to Bobbe's family about that,

we learned that Ed wasn't in line

for any big insurance payoffs

for Bobbe's death,

but we found out through Bobbe's family

that Bobbe was planning on leaving Ed.

♪♪

-Bobbe was going to divorce him,

so, although Ed wasn't gonna derive

any life-insurance proceeds from Bobbe,

there is a financial angle to this death.

-Does she get half of the business he owns,

half of any money in the bank account?

I mean, all of a sudden, he's looking at a huge financial hit.

So, that was possibly the motivation

for Ed to kill his wife.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Still unsure of exactly how Bobbe Amos died,

police suspect her husband, Ed Amos,

may have killed her.

While continuing to investigate,

they speak with Bobbe's family members

to learn why she was planning to leave Ed.

-Bobbe was getting away from Ed

because she thought he had been having an affair

with an individual in Michigan.

-Ed would spend a lot of time in Detroit --

that's where he was starting his business --

while Bobbe stayed in Anderson,

so, through the week,

he'd be up in Detroit by himself.

-Bobbe had found out

that his business trips

were really not just business trips.

♪♪

-In early December 1994,

just days before her death,

Bobbe received a phone call

from a woman claiming to be Ed's mistress.

-She actually called her,

and they'd had a long conversation

about the relationship,

and it was devastating

but not surprising,

and Bobbe was just kind of,

"It's over."

And we believe Ed knew

Bobbe found out about the affair.

Then, even though they are splitting up,

Bobbe made a decision

that she's going to go to this Christmas party with Ed.

It was just one of those things that we wished she didn't go.

-After learning that Ed Amos was potentially having an affair

when his wife died,

investigators reach out to the other woman

to find out what she may know.

-We learned from Bobbe's family

that her name was Mary Zellinger.

♪♪

-It was January 1995.

I received a phone call,

and it was Detective Henahan.

He said, "I'd like to talk to you."

He had told me that Bobbe Amos was dead,

and I was just --

My legs just gave out.

I went to the floor.

♪♪

I was in shock.

♪♪

-The next day, Mary goes to the police station

to give a formal statement about her relationship with Ed

and what she knows about Bobbe.

-She admitted that her and Ed

had an intimate relationship

but that it was over,

and then she told me the story.

-When I first came in contact with Ed Amos,

I was working in the telecommunications field.

We did a project together for his company.

He was a little flirty,

a very handsome man,

and explained to me that he was widowed,

and I felt really sad for him,

but I enjoyed his company a great deal.

♪♪

I live outside of Detroit,

and Ed traveled back and forth

from Indiana to Detroit regularly,

and we began seeing each other every other week,

depending on what his projects were.

It was a casual, very fun relationship,

and that then continued for a few years.

And then things changed.

♪♪

-She related to me that there were a couple of times

when she felt like she had been drugged.

-One evening,

Ed invited me over after work to have dinner,

and I didn't know if it was in the food

or the alcohol,

but something wasn't right.

I went into the bathroom,

and I just began to vomit violently,

and I was in so much pain,

and I just wanted to die.

It persisted, and -- and a week later,

I finally made an appointment with my doctor

and told him how violently ill I had been

and it was just lingering.

He did some bloodwork and found nothing wrong.

-She didn't know specifically how she thinks he drugged her,

but she felt that -- that way.

-And it was very confusing.

My sense was that he'd been using drugs on me,

but it just didn't add up.

I-I-I trusted him.

I knew he cared for me.

-Mary tells police she pushed aside

any doubts she had about Ed's character

until she discovered a disturbing secret.

-It was in the fall of 1994.

I noticed his dry cleaning,

and I looked at the tag from the cleaners,

and I saw this name --

Bobbe Amos.

♪♪

When I saw that, I realized that he's married!

♪♪

-That caused her to be suspicious

and start questioning things.

-But I didn't tell Ed I saw that tag.

I wanted to see how things played out.

And so we had dinner that evening,

and he may have noticed something's different,

but he looked at me

and said, "You need to get far away from me

because I'm a bad dude"...

♪♪

...with just a kind of dead stare.

It sent a chill down my spine.

The voice that he used, the look on his face --

I have never felt such evilness in my life,

and that was the last time I saw Ed.

I-I was done.

-That's why she made the phone call to Bobbe.

-I went through all the information that I had

from Ed's business,

and, eventually, I came across a number

that I felt was probably a home number.

So I called that number,

and Bobbe answered the phone, and I said,

"My name is Mary, and I want you to know who I am,

and I want you to know that I did not know

that you were married to Ed Amos."

And then I said, "You need to be very afraid.

I think you're in danger."

I felt like I was trying to help her,

but I knew she wasn't going to trust me or believe me.

And then that call ended,

and that was December 1, 1994,

and so 10 days after I made that call to her,

she -- she was dead.

♪♪

There's no words to describe

the dirtiness,

the self-loathing.

♪♪

[ Voice breaking ] I felt so...

[ Sniffling ]

...responsible

that I couldn't do more.

[ Crying ]

♪♪

-Soon after hearing Mary's harrowing account,

investigators receive Bobbe's toxicology report.

-The blood cocaine level

on an average fatal overdose

would have been 0.25.

Bobbe's blood cocaine level

was 5.7,

which put 15 times the amount it would take

for a fatal overdose.

-The medical examiner also explained

there would be no way

for Bobbe to self-administer

that amount of cocaine.

-He said, "She'd have passed out

long before she could have ever gotten

that much cocaine into her system."

♪♪

-The medical examiner

was able to confirm that there was no accidental

or potentially suicidal explanation

for Bobbe's death,

so her manner of death

was then changed to homicide.

♪♪

-It was a very big revelation.

We were on the right track.

We had, all along, felt that Ed Amos

was not only responsible for Bobbe's death

but his two prior wives

and possibly his mother.

♪♪

And I wanted to make sure

that he didn't get away with murder again.

Now we had to gather up the evidence and prove it.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Shortly after Bobbe's death is ruled a homicide,

detectives learn the results of the forensic examination

of the water-soaked bedsheet that she was found on

at the crime scene.

-There was evidence of cocaine solution

that had been on the bed with Bobbe.

♪♪

-Our theory was that the cocaine

was liquefied with water

and Ed administered it into her system

enough to kill her,

possibly using an oversized syringe.

♪♪

-Needing hard evidence or a witness

to back up their theory,

investigators turn back to Ed's employee Daniel Porcasi,

who they believe knows more than he is saying

about the night Bobbe died.

-When I initially was interviewing Porcasi,

he seemed nervous.

I got the opinion

that maybe he didn't want to be accused of being involved

in -- in narcotics

or Bobbe's death.

So I had him come to headquarters,

where I could interview him.

-Ultimately, Porcasi admitted

that he had removed a bag

from Ed Amos's hotel room

the morning of the death.

♪♪

-That morning, before the officers arrived,

Ed called and told him, "I need you to come to my room now."

When Porcasi went down there,

Ed gave him a small satchel --

it's like a toilet-article kit --

and said, "I need you to take this

and get it out of here."

Porcasi immediately checked out of the room

and got out of there.

-He's an employee, so his boss says, "Hey, take the bag,"

he takes it.

♪♪

Later in that same day,

Ed drives 40 miles away to Daniel's house,

collects the bag.

-And we're like, "So, what was so important

that he had to run out there immediately to get it back?"

And he said he didn't look.

And my thought,

looking him right in the eye, was like,

"Come on. Really?

You didn't peek?"

And, finally, he said, yeah, he looked.

We asked him, "So, what was in it?

What was in that little satchel?"

-He says he found a syringe

and a washcloth

that had some kind of a stain on it.

-He said it was a big syringe,

and that helped prove our theory

about how Ed administered the cocaine to her

with a large syringe.

-Investigators are now confident

they know what happened to Bobbe in the hotel room

the night she died.

-It's reasonable to assume

that Ed had stuck something in her drink

to cause her to further be incapacitated

so she wouldn't resist.

-He diluted half an ounce of cocaine in water,

which is a lot of cocaine,

and then pulled it up into the syringe

and injected it into her vagina.

It would have entered into her system right away,

and she began to overdose from it.

And then, of course, he did some cleanup --

put the syringe and the cloth in that satchel,

called one of his employees,

and he gave them that satchel to take out.

-Ultimately, that bag was given back to Amos

before the police had a chance to take it

for possible evidence.

-And then two hours later,

Ed calls the desk at the hotel,

saying his wife is deceased.

He was diabolical.

He knew exactly what he was gonna do,

and he thought that he would get away with it again.

-We took about a year

of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together

and getting to where we wanted to be

as far as pursuing the prosecution,

and then we got the warrant for Amos's arrest.

♪♪

-In November 1995,

investigators travel to Las Vegas

to arrest Ed Amos for the first-degree murder

of his wife, Bobbe.

-Ed had relocated to Las Vegas,

so I went to Vegas to make the arrest.

I told him, "You're under arrest for the murder of Bobbe Amos."

That's when I advised him of his rights,

and he didn't want to make any statements.

And then we put him on a prisoner-transport bus

back to Detroit.

-When Ed was finally arrested,

the family --

we were relieved

and happy

but also afraid

that "Is he really gonna go to jail this time?"

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-In September of 1996,

nearly two years after Bobbe Amos's death,

the trial of her suspected killer

and husband Ed Amos begins.

-Michigan state law had changed

not too long prior to -- to Bobbe's death

where that would allow the prosecution to introduce

what would be termed as prior bad acts,

even if they weren't charged criminally.

♪♪

-That was huge.

♪♪

That showed the jury that there's a history here.

-We had witnesses from Indiana, Michigan --

family members and Mary Zellinger

up to testify.

♪♪

-Testifying was hard, but I had to do that.

It was humiliating, embarrassing,

to have had a relationship with a very evil man.

But, obviously,

sociopaths are chameleons.

♪♪

He thought he was smarter than everyone else,

and, probably, he laughed at us

that we trusted or believed in him.

♪♪

They walk among us -- these perverted people.

They will sweep you off your feet.

They're charming,

and they could be the one that will take your life.

♪♪

-After three weeks of testimony,

on October 24, 1996,

the jury returns with a verdict.

-We were shaking

because

we didn't know what to expect.

♪♪

And then when they said, "Guilty"...

♪♪

...there was a cheer.

There was such a...

sigh of...

happiness, if there could be happiness,

that this guy is off the streets.

-Ed was found guilty of first-degree murder

in the death of Bobbe Amos

and was sentenced to life in prison,

no parole.

♪♪

-I felt so much relief,

joy...

that justice had been served

and that he would never do this again to anyone else,

and that was -- that was all we could ask for.

-One of my first thoughts when he was found guilty

is I thought about the family of Saundra Amos.

I thought about Carolyn's family.

I felt that there was finally some closure in this

and that a serial killer got what he deserved.

♪♪

-We put a lot of effort and a lot of hard work into it.

It's what they call a career case.

Yeah, I'm -- I'm happy with the results.

-I'm proud to have been just a part

of this whole investigation.

It was a team effort,

and, hopefully, Bobbe's family

will have some sense of -- of closure, as well.

♪♪

♪♪

-I have pictures of her in the house,

and I just always talk to her,

just telling her I miss her.

So...

Okay.

♪♪

It is sad

that we don't have her,

but we have the memories

and we still talk about her.

So, I think that's how we keep her alive.

She always was such a bright light.

♪♪