Original subtitles

♪

[ bird calling ]

Dana: I don't think we really truly have fully recovered from it.

♪

It was just the craziest thing.

It was like we were living in a movie.

That was what it was.

♪

So...

[ sniffles ]

Wilson: Just going nuts just trying to put the pieces together.

I was very scared -- really, really scared.

♪

♪

Murphy: How you make the transition

From decent suburban upbringing to brutal murderer?

Everybody feared him.

Duane: It was quiet, eerie.

I'm not so sure that any of us were prepared for it.

We learned that some tragic thing had happened,

And it was shocking.

♪

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

[ crows cawing ]

♪

Life in 2003 before all this happened was really good.

♪

The winter was a pretty cold one.

We got more snow than we typically got,

A lot of 6-inch to 12-inch days.

♪

♪

-Dinner is ready. -Mom's an amazing cook.

-Really? -She made thanksgiving dinner,

And only three people died.

Dana: Shawn was my stepson.

He was really funny,

Very comical, witty, quick-wit young man.

My mother would smack me if I said that.

Shawn was dating carrie lynn heiden.

Carrie was very sweet, beautiful smile.

She really enjoyed hanging out with us.

You could tell that they cared very much for each other.

Are you ready? Wait for it.

♪

Oh, god.

That night I made meatloaf, which shawn didn't care for,

And he would call it beet loaf

To let me know his feelings about my meatloaf.

If shawn didn't like what I was making for dinner,

They would often sneak off

And go get something different later.

I just remembered the thing that carrie and I have to go to.

What thing?

The thing with my friends at the fast food place.

We completely forgot.

That's fine. More for your father and me.

Seriously, be careful out there.

There's a snowstorm coming.

I love you, shawny.

Shawny, tell your mother you love her.

Love you.

Bye, mom. Bye, dad.

♪

I recall after they left, maybe 20 minutes,

30 minutes later, going up to bed.

♪

♪

Yeah. I never imagined

That would be the last time I saw them.

[ sniffling ]

♪

[ alarm beeping ]

I would typically wake up around 5:15, 5:30 in the morning

To get ready for work.

[ sighs ]

[ breathes deeply ]

♪

♪

♪

I looked out the window, and shawn's car was not there.

It was very unusual not to have had come home.

I was a little annoyed and mad.

You know, "how dare you not let us know where you're at?"

[ dialing ]

♪

Hey, it's shawn. Leave a message.

[ beep ]

Shawn, where are you?

Why aren't you home?

Call me as soon as you get this.

I was starting to get very concerned.

I called cinda, carrie's mother.

I was hoping that she knew something.

[ telephone ringing ]

♪

This is cinda.

Hi, it's dana.

Listen, shawn and carrie aren't here.

Have you seen them this morning?

When I heard dana's voice, she sounded...Worried.

She said that she hadn't heard from shawn and carrie,

And she wanted to know if they were at the house.

I said, "no, they're not here."

No, I thought carrie was staying with you last night.

I went to bed early.

Well, they never came home.

I'm a little worried.

If you hear from them, will you please call me?

All right. Let me see if I can get ahold of carrie.

After dana and I hung up the phone,

I called carrie's phone first.

[ dialing ]

[ ringing ]

It's carrie. You know what to do.

[ beep ]

Carrie, it's mom. Where are you?

Call me, please.

Carrie always answers her phone or calls you back

Or we'll send you a text.

It was almost surgically attached to her head.

♪

Now I'm worried. Now I'm really, really worried.

♪

We both phoned our local sheriff department

And filed a report,

And they came to the home after that.

-Thanks for coming over. -'course.

So when's the last time you saw him?

Last night. They left during dinner.

And did you have a fight with shawn?

Maybe he was angry?

What? No.

They were really grilling us on what kind of relationship

Did we have, was there anything

That he may have been angry about

Or trying to get away from us for some reason?

The answer was a flat "no." no. No.

That's not -- that's not what's happening here.

Ma'am, I wouldn't worry.

If you can't find teenagers,

It's 'cause don't want to be found.

They told us that, you know, typically these types of cases

Are a runaway and they'll show up within a day or two.

Listen, officer,

I'm not trying to tell you your business,

But I'm telling you I know my son,

And I'm telling you something's not right.

They weren't nearly as concerned as we were.

Ma'am, we've dealt with this situation hundreds of times.

Trust me. Shawn and carrie are gonna turn up.

♪

I didn't want to become the combative crazy lady

So we just tried to go with it,

But, yeah, it was very frustrating.

♪

Narrator: Within hours, more disturbing news arrives.

[ telephone ringing ]

♪

♪

Hello?

That night around 11:30,

I got a phone call from the fire department.

They found what? Where?

They found his car burned up,

And immediately I knew something was wrong.

♪

Were they... Were they inside?

♪

Oh, thank god.

[ sighs ] I understand.

I asked whether they were going to do an investigation

On the car, and they said,

"no. It has already been processed."

Thank you.

Duane, what's happening? What's going on?

I don't know.

They found shawn's car partially burned,

But drivable.

There's no sign of shawn or carrie.

They want me to pick up the car.

I was surprised they released the car to me at all.

I thought it was highly unusual.

I'll be home soon.

Well, should -- should I come, too?

No. No. Stay here.

Okay.

♪

♪

♪

♪

Oh, my god.

Duane.

The car had been found near the wheat field areas,

And it had been burned on the inside.

It was a really eerie feeling to look inside

And see the dashboard melted

And some of their belongings in there

And still wondering, "where were they?"

Oh, this isn't right.

♪

What's this?

♪

Whose camera is this?

I think that's shawn's.

They didn't think that there was any foul play involved.

I assume that that's what they thought

That the kids were runaways

And maybe did this to their own car,

You know, which is ridiculous.

Was this new car. He loved it.

We know shawn wouldn't have done that.

What are we gonna do, duane?

We were absolutely stunned,

And I remember the look on duane's face.

It was just...

[ voice breaking ] you know, we knew something was wrong.

♪

♪

Oh.

It's a picture of shawn.

It's actually -- we found a kodak camera in the car,

And we developed the film.

This is definitely one of the last photos that we have of him.

♪

Every night, I would keep the window wide open,

And every car gave me hope.

[ sniffles ]

♪

[ sighs ] and I carried

Every phone with me and slept with every phone

Or nodded off or sat in bed and stared at the ceiling.

It was -- it was --

It was crazy.

[ sniffles ]

♪

♪

Detective murphy,

Here's that file on the missing teenagers.

I had heard just enough about the case

To pique my interest.

Hey...

Yeah?

...You've got this down as a runaway case?

Seemed like the most likely scenario.

It was different from your typical runaway case.

The thing that really stood out

Was the fact that shawn's car was found abandoned and burnt.

♪

Help me understand this.

Your theory is that they wanted to skip town,

So they set fire to their vehicle?

Is that right?

Kids do some crazy things.

That's not a normal thing for people to do.

People set fires to destroy evidence.

-Evidence of what? -Any number of things.

None of them good.

Murder is on the list of things

That could have possibly happened.

We could have had a murder-suicide.

Or shawn killed carrie and now shawn was in hiding

And the car was burnt to kind of throw us off.

But we still need the traditional things

To follow up on, like the victim, a crime scene.

And regardless of what the scenario was,

We didn't have any of those.

We need some answers.

♪

♪

Where shawn's car was located is farmland.

We even used aircraft to do aerial searches of those fields

To see if we could locate any signs

Of shawn or carrie's bodies.

Those vast fields were deep in snow.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But all of the searching resulted in nothing.

♪

I know that both families were very concerned.

Mrs. Wilson, thanks for letting me come talk to you.

♪

Everyone's told me not to worry, but...

You're right to be worried.

Is there anyone that you can think of

That might want to hurt carrie?

No. She's just a kid.

But...

I feel a little strange saying this --

It's about shawn.

What about him?

I wasn't comfortable with carrie and shawn dating at all.

♪

There was something off about him.

Normally he'd pull up in the driveway and honk the horn,

Had the radio going, and a lot of bass.

Sometimes a lot of rap.

The few times that he did come into the house,

He really wouldn't speak.

He would stay at the doorway, seem anxious.

Almost like...He was hiding something.

♪

And that just seemed, um, evasive to me.

Was there anything in particular that he did that stood out?

♪

I just don't think that he was really the sweet kid

That everyone thought he was.

I thought that shawn was a bad influence.

I told the detectives

That if someone wanted to hurt the two of them,

It was because of his choices.

I didn't think it was going to be because of carrie's.

Do you think that shawn could have hurt carrie?

I just think that shawn might have been mixed up in something.

Murphy: That was definitely a different perspective

Than we had gotten from shawn's parents,

And this gave us a good angle to pursue.

♪

Narrator: With few leads,

Detective murphy revisits the physical evidence.

My gut feeling was there was something more

To do with shawn's car.

Prior to the car being towed,

The fire department did collect evidence.

This is what we collected.

Let me know if you need anything else.

All right. Thank you.

The evidence taken from the car at the scene

Had just been booked in, and was untouched.

♪

The arson investigator found a cigarette butt

On the floor of the car.

It looks like this is what started the fire.

This bag, let's send it for dna analysis.

There was other evidence in the car.

What on earth?

One of the interesting things in the car

Was a business card of one of the detectives

That worked for me.

We need to talk to her...

Now.

We were basically shaking trees,

And whatever fruit fell, that's what we were following.

♪

So, shawn's missing?

Yeah, that's right. And you were speaking with him.

I was trying to.

About what?

For that shooting.

Prior to shawn and carrie's disappearance,

Some of our detectives had been working on a shooting

At a house on 6th street.

♪

[ mid-tempo music playing ]

[ indistinct conversations ]

♪

♪

One of the people fired two rounds from a shotgun

Through the front window.

[ gunshots, glass shatters ]

[ people screaming ]

Nobody was hurt.

Who would shoot through a window in a rich neighborhood?

♪

A group of people drove up to the 6th street shooting,

And shawn was one of the people.

You think shawn to find those shots?

I don't think so.

But I do think he knows who did.

So detectives tried to interview shawn

As a witness in that case.

My understanding is that shawn refused to give any information.

But it's pretty clear that shawn knew something.

He didn't want to tell me.

Is he running to distance himself

From the 6th street shooting investigation?

I'm gonna need your help on this one.

There's a connection here.

And if we don't figure out what it is...

We're not gonna find those kids.

♪

Who would be out to harm them?

Was this some random act?

Was it someone they knew?

What -- what the world is going on here?

♪

Not knowing what happened

Is one of the hardest things

That a parent could ever go through.

And the days tick by very slowly

While you're waiting to find out what happened to your child.

♪

Dana: As the days and weeks and months drag on,

It was pure desperation.

I walked away from a very promising career

To make that my full-time job to find these kids.

♪

♪

Honey?

♪

Honey?

Duane, I have to tell you something.

What is it?

I spoke to her again.

I had started to see a psychic,

Which is something I would have never done normally.

I'm not a big believer in that stuff,

But I was desperately grasping at anything

That I could at that point.

Oh, honey, we talked about this.

I know, but I can't just sit here and do nothing.

I can't.

She felt she knew where they're located.

She had mentioned that there would be

A white abandoned house nearby.

I don't know. This all sounds so crazy.

I know.

But we could get volunteers to help us search.

We were so desperate that we would take anything

And make it valuable information and follow up on it.

It can't hurt to look, duane.

Please.

♪

♪

♪

Duane: We had an individual from missing persons organization.

We went out on a search with him and a cadaver dog.

[ dog barking ]

There was a good six to eight inches of snow.

We searched along the wheat fields in aurora.

We were getting tired and cold,

And weren't really finding anything.

But then there was one point

Where we passed an abandoned home,

And the cadaver dog had hit on something.

[ dog barking ]

He barked and ran at the house,

And was pointing to the basement window.

That was scary.

The psychic had mentioned that they would be found

Near an abandoned white house.

Everything stood still.

I felt panic, fear.

Duane actually went down in that basement.

I couldn't even do it.

♪

♪

I'm not so sure that any of us were prepared to find him.

♪

It was quiet. It was kind of eerie.

♪

♪

I found a dead squirrel.

-Duane? -Dana, you can come down.

It's nothing.

♪

Dana: I'm grateful that we didn't stumble upon them

Because we just couldn't have that image

Burned into our minds.

♪

Until you hear otherwise,

You're gonna hold out some kind of hope.

But we were now still with no answers.

What do we do now?

I don't know.

♪

♪

[ telephone ringing ]

♪

Douglas county sheriff's office.

Man: I'm calling about those missing kids.

Who is this?

I know someone who was involved.

Hey, detective,

Got a guy who said he knows what happened our missing teens.

Oh, yeah? Who is he?

Jailhouse informant.

Murphy: About a month or so into the investigation,

We got a call from a jailhouse informant.

At first, there was some doubt

As to the credibility of the information.

An inmate?

No doubt he wants something exchanged for his tip.

♪

Yeah, this is detective murphy.

I understand you have some information for me.

Yep. Those two kids...

They're dead.

And I think I know who killed 'em.

The informant told us that a guy named nat york

Killed shawn and carrie.

That was hard to believe.

Nat and his family were from a fairly affluent area.

Okay. You'll hear from me soon.

-Think it's credible? -No.

Hey, davis.

Nat york, that ring a bell?

Yeah. Why?

'cause I just got a tip that dropped in my lap.

What you know about york?

I know that he's on my list of suspects for that shooting

Down on 6th street.

Nat's name had come up

As being responsible for the 6th street shooting.

And shawn cerniglia was a witness

To the shooting on 6th street.

Shawn cerniglia knew nat york.

You're kidding me?

No. In fact, I was gonna go down and question him now.

I'm going with you.

♪

♪

♪

Murphy: When I went to initially speak with nat,

I was more or less on a fishing expedition at that point

To try to find out any information I could

On their disappearance.

Man: Who is it?

Detective murphy. My partner and I

Are investigating a case. We want to speak with you.

Can you come to the door?

And his response was

"my attorney will contact you in 24 to 48 hours."

No. It did make me more curious, though,

As to what he was trying to avoid.

I thought maybe he thought we were there

To investigate the 6th street shooting.

You think he's the murdering type?

I don't know.

Well, listen, if nat doesn't talk,

Maybe his friends will.

So it was possible that somebody from this group

Had something to do with their disappearance.

♪

Every night, I'd go sit out on my front porch

Wondering if she had food, if she was cold.

[ owl hooting ]

Just sitting out there and talking to her

As if she was right in front of me.

It was a spiritual connection is the only way I can describe it.

♪

[ sniffles ]

Tell her I loved her. Tell her I missed her.

Tell her I hope she was okay, ask her when she's coming home.

♪

♪

Murphy: Months after their disappearance,

We got a call from a farmer.

So I was just out here walking in the field

Now that the snow melted, came up on 'em

Just laying there.

Initially, the farmer thought that they were mannequins.

But he got closer, and was able to see

That they were actually

The decomposing remains of two humans.

♪

♪

Think it's shawn and carrie?

I do.

Shawn and carrie's bodies were starting to mummify.

The state of decomposition made it pretty gruesome.

♪

Carrie had one gunshot wound to the head.

Shawn also had a gunshot wound to the head.

I still can't get that image out of my mind.

We classify this as a homicide.

I'm gonna let the family know.

♪

What tears me up the most is knowing

That she was out there by herself

In pain and cold and couldn't get help.

♪

It was, you know, the call that we half-expected, but dreaded.

It was just like everything stood still.

♪

[ sniffles ] yeah.

I just thought, "well, that's it."

You know, they're gone forever.

♪

♪

So you're a friend of nat york?

Murphy: I interviewed at least a dozen people

That were in some way associated with nat york.

Hey, I'm talking to you!

Did you know shawn and carrie?

I heard they died.

That's it?

Yeah, that's it.

It was a fair amount of suburban white kids

Trying to be something that they weren't.

Get the hell out of here.

♪

None of them came from a rough neighborhood.

This entire circle of friends were all wannabe gangsters.

♪

So eventually, we came to a young lady

Named catherine farnkoff, who was nat york's girlfriend.

♪

She was very nervous.

She was probably afraid

For what could potentially happen to her

For talking to us.

Do you know why you're here?

Shawn cerniglia and carrie lynn heiden.

I don't know.

I actually wanted some emotion from her,

And I wasn't getting any.

We were sitting at a table.

I was seated next to catherine.

I was slowly creeping my chair toward her.

♪

♪

And I intentionally got into her private space.

♪

Someone shot them

And left them in a frozen field...

To die.

It is an investigative strategy

To kind of be a space invader.

It breaks down a wall.

It's time to tell the truth.

The change in the atmosphere was amazing.

♪

[ crying ]

I can't get it out of my head.

Get what out of your head?

♪

What I saw.

And she probably cried for 15 minutes straight

Telling the story.

[ sighs ]

So, this is all about nat?

No. It wasn't just nat.

♪

It was also caleb.

♪

♪

It wasn't just nat.

It was also caleb.

Murphy: Caleb burns wasn't from our area.

Everybody feared him.

He was somebody that nat had met.

They'd both committed crimes as juveniles

And developed a friendship,

And unfortunately for society,

Started carrying out their reign of terror.

Okay. Start from the beginning.

The party on 6th street, who shot through the window?

♪

Nat and caleb.

They wanted to send a message

That they were not to be messed with.

[ mid-tempo music playing ]

[ indistinct conversations ]

♪

All right. There's the place.

Whose house is this?

Someone who just didn't show us any respect.

[ whistles ]

Wait. Wait. What if they find out it was us?

No one is gonna find out it was us

Unless someone tells them.

But you wouldn't do that, would you, shawn?

No.

All right, then.

[ gunshots, glass shatters ]

[ people screaming ]

And then nat and caleb heard a rumor

That shawn was talking to you about what happened.

♪

Caleb had come up with the plan

To lure shawn over to nat's apartment.

I believe that shawn telling his mom

That they were going for fast food was just a cover story.

I was at nat's apartment that night.

Shawn and carrie came over.

♪

♪

Hey, guys. What'd you want to talk about?

Talk?

I heard you've done enough talking.

Their paranoia was extreme.

What do you mean?

[ grunts ]

[ screams ]

Oh, caleb!

Nat and caleb thought that he was ratting on them

For the 6th street shooting

And wanted to retaliate against shawn for snitching.

Caleb, nat, ugh! What are you doing?

-You are a snitch. -Shawn, what's going on?

Tell your girlfriend, shawn.

Tell her you've been talking to a cop.

I didn't say anything. You know I wouldn't tell.

Hey! Hey!

Watch this.

[ groaning ]

[ screaming ]

They pretty much beat the tar out of shawn.

♪

They were both bound in duct tape.

Pillow case!

They had pillow cases put over their heads.

[ carrie and shawn panting ]

Get up!

What did I say? What did I say?

Carrie had to be terrified of what was going on.

[ gasps ] please --

You, too.

[ muffled scream ]

♪

Nat and caleb gave catherine

The keys to shawn cerniglia's car.

She was instructed to follow them.

That night, they drove about 30 miles to a field

Out in the middle of nowhere.

They instructed catherine to just wait there.

[ muffled speaking ]

[ both panting ]

Carrie: [ screaming ]

[ whimpering ]

They can't possibly imagine

What is about to happen to the two of them.

Caleb, nat, please. Leave her out of this!

She didn't have anything to do with it!

She does now.

It's called guilt by association, bud.

[ laughs ]

Shawn and carrie were ordered to get on their knees

Please, listen to me.

On the ground!

[ screaming ]

I haven't said a word, I promise.

Just listen to me.

And they were each shot in the head.

♪

[ gunshots ]

♪

♪

Did you guys...

Mm-hmm.

What about his girlfriend?

Casualty of war.

I don't recall who actually poured the gas in,

But caleb was the one that lit the cigarette

And threw the cigarette into the car.

They burned the car to dispose of evidence.

♪

♪

[ sniffling ]

You know, catherine,

I did try to get shawn to confess

About the 6th street shooting.

And he did?

No. He didn't.

Shawn never implicated nat or caleb

In the 6th street shooting.

Nat and caleb killed him for nothing...

[ crying ]

...And then killed carrie

Because she happened to be with him.

Caleb described that carrie was a casualty of war.

I can't wrap my head around that.

♪

The statement that catherine farnkoff gave us

In her confession was consistent with the evidence,

Especially the cigarette butt.

♪

Through forensics, we were able to get caleb's dna

From that cigarette butt.

Everything that they did that night was evil.

But how you make the transition

From decent suburban upbringing

To brutal murderer?

I don't get it.

♪

♪

Hearing the circumstances of their death

Was the hardest thing.

Because it was just so far fetched

And so out of our ordinary.

He was horribly frightened.

♪

I'm sure they both were.

[ crying ]

♪

♪

♪

♪

Wilson: To hear what had happened that night...

♪

Hurt.

But a .22 in the eye is not going to be a quick death.

♪

And then they left and went to the gas station to get a soda.

♪

And left her lying there in that field.

♪

Cold and shivering and dying.

With nobody to help her.

♪

[ sniffles ]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

I like seeing pictures of her.

She was a very beautiful young lady.

When I come home,

I got to say good night to her before I go to bed.

♪

You've lost all those opportunities

To watch them grow.

Yeah. You don't heal.

[ sniffles ]

You know, you just learn to deal with it.

The pain, you know, you learn to bury the pain is what it is.

[ sniffles ]

♪