All language subtitles for The Detectives (2018) 1x02 - Project Hitchhiker (English)

A 14-year-old girl
just doesn't disappear

off the face of the earth.

This is stuff you read
stories and watch movies of...

that happens down in the States.

It didn't happen up here.

In this case, we had no body.

And we had no crime scene.

But we had a suspect.

You pick her up, and then kill her. Why?

We had a lot of good evidence
that pointed it towards him....

but nowhere near a smoking gun.

He plays out the exact same
scenario with all the girls

that he picks up.

We couldn't afford any slips.

I made a promise.

I would take the case as
far as I could take it.

There was no way I was gonna
let him get away with it.

14 years old, Stark!
She was 14 years old.

I had no idea that it was going
to end up being like this.

Not in my wildest imagination,

as complex as it ended up being.

So, what's a nice girl like you doing

out hitchhiking on a night like this?

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I was about 35 at the time,

and I'd been promoted into homicide.

I was called in by the inspector
in charge of Major Crime.

He says, everybody on
this unit has to carry a...

an unsolved case.

And I remember him picking
up this banker's box

and saying, "Here's yours."

Julie Stanton?

Young girl who went missing last summer?

Yeah. Last seen getting
into a car near her home.

Never been seen again.

It was originally treated
as a missing persons, right?

Yeah, it was first handled
by the Youth Bureau.

By the time Major Crimes
got it, days had past.

The family's devastated.

It's very common for kids to run away,

but she didn't fit that mould.

She was well liked by her friends.

She was well liked by her teachers.

Her parents and her had
a great relationship.

They can't understand
why she was never found.

Why no one was arrested.

The prime suspect is Peter Stark.

We can't prove it, but we know it's him.

Peter Stark knew Julie.

His daughter, Kim, she befriended Julie.

The family knows it's him.

They've gone after him.

The media's gone after him.

I want this thing solved.

I'll give it everything I've got, Sir.

Good.

Hey.

Welcome to homicide.

It happened just down
the street from where she lived.

The car that Julie Ann
Stanton got into is described

as a faded grey car,
possibly a Monte Carlo.

She was last seen wearing
a dark bomber-style jacket,

blue jeans and multi-colored...

It's a suspicious missing
person, a young girl.

So how was I gonna put it together?

How was I gonna look at it?

When you have a cold case,

you have the benefit of
the initial investigation,

but you have to look at
it with fresh eyes.

We had the advantage of
having a lot more information

about Peter than the
original investigators did.

The initial investigation
developed a good suspect

in Peter Stark, and I needed to
understand how they got there.

Everyone thinks it's Peter Stark, right?

We had no murder weapon, no crime scene.

And Julie was never found.

Walk me through it,
how did we get to here?

OK. So, James Ascott, Julie's
17-year-old neighbour.

Now, as far as we know,
he's the last person

to see Julie before she went missing.

Now, he said that he saw her get
into a late '70s Monte Carlo,

ID'd the driver as a white male
with shaggy hair and scruffy.

So, we look into Julie's life,

turns out her best friend Kim's father

matched Ascott's description.

- Hi.
- Hey.

I'm headed downtown,
can I give you a lift?

Sure.

Shaggy hair, scruffy,
drove a '79 Monte Carlo.

Peter Stark.

Yeah. Kid said it looked
like Peter Stark,

but he couldn't say for sure.

What about his daughter,
Kim? You talk to her?

Yeah.

Yeah, she's a good kid. Uh, she
lives with Stark's mother now.

Neither one of them
had anything much to say.

All right.

What have you got for motive?

He has violent tendencies...

and a serious past.

Nancy Nelson?

Nancy Nelson.

Back in 1970, 18-year-old
blonde hitchhiker.

Almost stabbed to death by
Stark after he picked her up.

She barely escaped.

I was hitchhiking.

I just wanted a ride to meet my friend.

You have to understand that
back then in my neighborhood,

we all hitchhiked.

It wasn't a big deal.

And...

he seemed nice.

He said his name was Michael.

He seemed worried for me at first.

He said, "Isn't a young girl like you

afraid to be hitchhiking at night?"

The knife went in from here to here.

He cut my liver, my lungs,
and almost cut my spine.

The doctor said I died
three times during surgery.

When I interviewed her, I
felt really bad for her,

because here I am interviewing
her in 1991, you know,

21 years later.

And you can still see the emotion.

There wasn't too many nights

that she could sleep with the light off.

Stark did six months.

Six months?

Yeah. Nancy was so
disturbed after the attack

that she couldn't testify.

So, after all that, all he
got was an assault charge.

Oh.

And then there's Maria Woods.

31 years old.

Disappeared in 1981.

And guess who was dating
her just prior to that?

The star of the show, Peter Stark.

Yeah.

He was a suspect, but her body
wasn't found for five years,

and by then, the
decomposition was so bad

that they couldn't even
determine the cause of death,

let alone pin it to Stark.

We had to let him walk.

Peter's married, right?
Alison, Kim Stark's stepmom?

Yeah. They separated
after the investigation

and then Stark moved to Niagara Falls.

Peter Stark was married at the time.

Alison had been approached
on the initial investigation,

and she had provided
information from the get-go.

I thought Alison was a
very intelligent woman.

She was very, very honest.

She just was not very
good at picking... men.

You mentioned before that
after Julie disappeared,

Peter's behaviour changed.

Peter was acting strange.

M-hm. Strange how?

Uh, the stress and
everyone asking questions.

M-hm.

He started wetting the bed.

Getting paranoid.

What about before Julie disappeared?

What was he like then?

He was frustrated... by me.

He liked to play games.

What kind of games?

Role play.

He liked the idea of
being a stranger and...

uh, using a fake name.

And he wanted me to hitchhike.

He wanted me to dress
up like a teenager.

I even wore a wig.

Was it blonde?

So he'd drop me off
and after he'd uh, come back

and pick me up while
I pretended to hitchhike.

So, what's a nice girl like
you doing out hitchhiking

on a night like this?

Isn't it dangerous?

Alison willingly played
the hitchhiker game.

She had no understanding that
what he was asking her to do

was bang on with what he had
done to Nancy back in 1970.

She... she was completely
oblivious to that.

To her, it was just a
sexual role-play that her

and her husband were playing.

My name's Michael.

Hi, Michael.

And after driving
around for a little bit,

well, we'd pull over and we'd uh...

Peter had very specific
uh, sexual impulses.

He... he needed to get
violent to get aroused.

Did he hurt you?

He knew what I'd be able to handle.

So, the day Julie disappeared,

he wanted you to play hitchhiker?

He had been wanting to play all
weekend, and I didn't want to.

And the day that Julie disappeared,

he had asked me to skip work to play.

But you went to work.

Yeah.

M-hm.

Now, you told the officers before uh,

the day Julie disappeared, he
came to pick you up from work,

but he was late, and dirty
and disheveled and all that.

Did he give you a reason?

His car had broken down.

Right um, a catalytic converter.

Is that what he said?

That's right.

M-hm. And you believed him?

Yeah.

Because Peter's car doesn't
have a catalytic converter.

Were you aware of that, Alison?

No.

If I were you, I would keep
my distance from your husband.

I felt that she was conflicted.

Half of her probably wanted to
believe that he was innocent,

and maybe the other half believed

that there was some guilt there.

We see this all the time.

We see women who are smart,
intelligent, attractive,

they're with people who abuse
them physically, emotionally,

sexually, and you wonder why
are they staying with them?

Ever since Nancy Nelson,

he's been reliving that day to get off.

He plays out the exact same scenario

with all the girls that he picks up.

What do we know about Stark
now that he's in Niagara Falls?

Well, nothing really.

I mean, we sent an info
pack over to Niagara

as soon as we found out he moved there.

We need eyes on him.

It's only a matter of time
before he does this again.

A man and his son were out fishing

down in the Niagara region.

They had jumped onto what
they thought was a rock,

but in fact was a piece of concrete.

The concrete broke and inside that was

dismembered parts of a young girl.

A guy putting his canoe in the
water found the first block.

Human foot inside.

I've been pulling blocks out ever since.

Each one contains a body part.

I became nervous.

Immediately we started
thinking, OK, is that Julie?

And that's one of the reasons we
haven't been able to find her.

We've got a female,
age 13-to 15-years-old.

Hair color?

Blonde.

Could be Julie Stanton.

I'll let you know as soon as
the dental records come in.

This was not something we have
seen here in Ontario

at this point.

This is stuff you read
stories and watch movies of

that happens down in the States.

It didn't happen up here.

So it was a whole new ballgame.

I'm gonna need help if we
want to catch this guy.

Stark has attacked and
presumably killed women

in downtown Toronto,
North York, Pickering.

Now he's living in Niagara Falls,

where we find the dismembered
body of a teenage girl.

And we believe all these
cases are connected,

but because they're in
different jurisdictions,

they're being handled separately,

and our hands are tied.

So, all Stark has to do
is keep moving around

and he's not gonna get caught.

When I worked in drugs and gangs,

we used to pool resources
from other jurisdictions

all the time. And you
know what? It worked.

Now, I'm proposing an
undercover operation

where we have 24-hour
surveillance, wire taps.

That... that's drugs and gangs.

It's not the way it works in homicide.

OK, it's never been done before.

We'd have to convince the
province to give us

those kinds of resources.

OK, so let's do it,
because it's the only way.

OK.

I don't like leaving anything unturned.

I'll think of anything I
can to solve the crime.

If we had the money, we
could do this investigation.

You get enough police
departments coming together...

Yeah, you could do it.

I had to put a dog and
pony show together.

We needed to impress
these police agencies

that this was something that
they could jump on board with.

They had to give us funds.

This had to be solved.

As the days went by, we
reviewed all the information

from the initial investigation.

Peter has a daughter from
another relationship.

Kim was born with a cleft
palate, and was shy.

Julie, she was a very nice
person, she befriended Kim.

Kim? I'm detective Herb Curwain.

I knew she was torn between
allegiance to her father.

and allegiance to who clearly
was one of her best friends.

If this is about my dad?

I already talked to cops.

I understand.

I know you all think my dad
killed Julie like everyone else.

She was my best friend.

He and Julie were friends.

I mean, he wouldn't do anything to her.

He cared about her friendship.

Is it possible that your father's

not telling you everything, Kim?

And if you know something,
you need to tell us.

I don't know what you're
expecting from me here.

I- I don't expect anything.

But you need to understand,

we believe that your father
attacks and kills young girls.

Girls your age.

Girls like Julie.

We can't let him do that again.

Dad admitted to me...

that he did pick up Julie
the day she went missing.

We got a break here.

Now we've got a witness
that can say yes,

he did, in fact, pick Julie
up, and he did, in fact,

have contact with her
the day she disappeared.

Peter was lying right from the get-go.

But Kim's statement helped
us, but nowhere near enough.

to arrest Peter.

We needed hard evidence.

Dental records from the
body found in Niagara.

It's not Julie Stanton.

No.

It's a new girl.

Leslie Mahaffy.

Young and blonde.

Stark's killing again.

Looks like it.

And here's the kicker.

Stark just moved to a
different jurisdiction.

Again.

He immediately moved to Napanee.

Another girl is murdered,
and Stark moves again.

This had to be solved.

A young teenage girl being dismembered

and encased in concrete:

if that was not going to
influence the powers that be

in the government to give
us money, nothing would.

Then I get the phone call.

It happened. They decided to fund us.

It shocked the hell out of me.

I'd like to personally welcome
everyone to Project Hitchhiker.

Our goal is to build a
case against Peter Stark.

Nine different agencies joined together.

All those agencies had unsolved cases.

where Stark was a suspect.

We're going to re-excavate the site

where Maria Woods' body was discovered.

Our hopes are, with new
technology, we'll be able to

forensically link Peter
Stark to her murder.

And we know Stark is lying, so
we're going to go back through

all the witness statements from
Maria Woods, Julie Stanton,

and the ongoing investigation
of Leslie Mahaffy.

We need to bug his house, his
car, tap his phones, all right?

We, we want him to screw up.

We want him to tell somebody
what he did to Julie

or proof that he's lying about that day.

And we know this isn't going to be easy,

because Stark is paranoid, reclusive,

doesn't have a lot of friends,

so we don't know who that
person's going to be.

The good news is, we've got Stark

on an outstanding fraud charge,

so we can bring him in anytime we want.

From now on, Stark's life...

is our life.

This is a serial killer who's
avoided life in prison

for 20 years.

Let's catch this guy.

Thank you, everybody.

We're gonna have to
talk to the Stantons.

Yeah.

The Stantons were known to
have confronted Stark head-on.

On one occasion, they walked
right up to his car

and started banging on the window,

screaming, "Where is Julie?
Where is Julie?"

We couldn't afford any slips
that would tip Stark off.

I can only imagine how
frustrating and challenging

this whole process has been for you.

But I'm going to have to ask you
to stay away from Peter Stark

and anyone in the Stark family.

He needs someone looking
over his shoulder.

I - I don't disagree.

I want to see Stark
pay for what he's done,

but I feel we are very
close to cracking this case,

if we have your help.

Will you give me that chance?

We have a plan in place right now,

but we need to keep that plan quiet.

Because the last thing we
want to do is provoke Stark

and have him going off and
doing something rash.

We want him staying right here in town.

So like you said, we can
keep our eyes on him

and know his every move.

We're going to make this right.

Fine.

It's a huge frustration for them.

Why haven't we arrested him?

Why haven't we charged him?

I made a promise that
I would take the case

as far as I could take it.

Peter Stark was a suspect on
the suspicious disappearance

of Maria Woods in 1981.

Her remains were found in 1986.

At that time, they had
no idea why she died.

There's no forensics.

Our goal was to see if we could
get forensic anthropologists

to go back, re-excavate the site,

and see if they could come
up with more information.

She was shot.

Huh.

There's more.

Bullet casing.

Well, we've got a cause of death
and a link to a murder weapon.

Get that to ballistics right away.

We've got a break, finally.

But nowhere near enough to
proceed with an actual charge.

We needed to move on to another
investigative technique.

Our next best avenue was the wire tap.

The surveillance teams were telling us

that they had never followed
anyone as paranoid

and as surveillance-conscious as Peter.

He would drive literally
hundreds and hundreds

of kilometres and go absolutely nowhere,

just to see if he was being followed.

There's a railway track
just north of the marina.

You can well imagine,

it's not very easy to
follow somebody there,

you're gonna stick
out like a sore thumb.

We clearly thought that he
was trying to draw us out.

I think we have a problem.

What's up, Hampton?

He's pulled over on the road and...

now he's just walking.

Crap.

Hold your position.

Oh God!

Stark is standing in the middle
of the train tracks out here.

Don't get out of your car.
We're sending in a patrol.

Holy shit! Now he's walking
down the railway tracks.

Is he committing suicide?

We gotta get him off the tracks.

If he commits suicide, we're fucked.

And we had to act quickly.

We created this story
that some person saw him walk

down the tracks, they called the police.

So the police would
automatically dispatch

a uniformed car.

Excuse me, sir?

Sir?

You can't be in the
middle of the tracks, sir.

Well, what do you suggest then?

I'm going to need to see some ID.

Peter Stark, born June 15th, 1946.

Peter had committed a fraud offense.

We had not put that on the system.

We didn't want that on the system

because that gave us an
opportunity to arrest him.

Copy that.

You aware there's a warrant
out for your arrest

on outstanding fraud charges, Mr. Stark?

Seriously?

That was a long time ago.

Just happened to come up now?

I'm gonna need you to come with me.

We had Stark taken to the local
police station and questioned.

What we wanted to do was to
put a wiretap in his car.

Unit Two, you're good to go.

We're done.

All right. Cut him loose.

Good work, everyone.

We had a plan: get into his head

and maybe get him to say
something or do something.

Get the wires on him, you know...

He's not really the one who's
gonna brag to people about it,

but he may say something to his mother.

He may say something to his daughter.

We listened for a month,
day in and day out,

we're not generating anything.

Nowhere near enough to charge
him, let alone convict him.

There's nothing else we could do.

Short of abducting
Peter and torturing him.

What else could you do?

We gotta get a break here.

Hi there. Pretty cold, huh?

Why don't you jump in?
I'll give you a ride.

Well, when we decided we
were going to do wire taps,

I honestly believed it
was our last-ditch effort.

If we had any shot at
getting him to say something,

that was the way it had to happen.

And.. it did.

It-it happened.

Get in.

You're late.

It's not my fault.

It never is.

You can't keep saying you're
going to make the effort, Peter,

and then turn around and
be late all the time.

It's Alison...

Holy shit!

What the hell is she
going back with him for?

Stark had convinced Alison
to quit her job and move.

We needed her away from him

so that she could be a
compellable witness against him.

Back then, you could not
compel a wife to testify

against her husband, even though
it may be involving a murder.

I'm pissed off that
she's gone back with him.

What are you doing back
with Stark, Alison?

Huh?

You know it's not safe.

What are you guys doing here?

Do you mind if I look
a quick look around?

You know, we're uh...

we're still working the
case against Peter and...

Yeah?

Well, he's not here.

You know, we're not gonna stop

till we find out what happened that day.

You have a good day now.

How was your day?

Fine.

It was a long day, but fine.

Thank you.

It looks good.

I can smell the oregano.

Do you ever think about Julie?

What really happened that day?

Just... drop it, Alison.

You always get so
defensive around all this.

It makes me think you're hiding things.

I said drop it.

You were an hour-and-a-half
late to pick me up that day.

You were covered in dirt.

Dammit, Alison, I told
you, the car broke down.

It didn't. I know it didn't.

It didn't even have a catalytic...

What the hell are you saying to me here?

I never even picked the frickin' kid up!

I did not kill anybody!

Aren't you gonna eat?

Yeah.

All right, that's enough, bring him in.

Alison's not getting that confession.

Let's get it ourselves.

The best shot at getting
a confession from him

was we needed to give
him a psychological blow.

We brought up the profilers
from the FBI academy

and we brainstormed.

We needed to come up with what
is the best way that we can get

as much information from him as we can?

If we approached him the same
way that they approached him

in the initial investigation,

he's going to see right off the bat

this is the same thing as before,

and all I said is I didn't
have anything to do with her.

and they let me go.

There had to be no doubt in his mind

that we had the goods on him.

We had practiced the arrest repeatedly.

We wanted to psychologically
beat him down.

We paraded Stark past the
1979 Chevy Monte Carlo.

We had purchased it
from the previous owner.

It was decided that we
were going to use uh,

a police officer that looked like Julie.

It would be a psychological blow

that the individual
that was arresting him

looked like the person that he
was being accused of murdering.

Right this way, Mr. Stark.

It was important to keep him off
balance right from the start.

We'd have an officer listening
to a wiretap of his wife,

who he would recognize.

Do you ever think about Julie,
what really happened that day?

Drop it, Alison.

I never even picked
the frickin' kid up.

We wanted him to clearly
know that it was over,

before we even walked in
to start interrogating him.

We wanted him to know the
whole world was looking at him.

That it was not a matter of
whether he did it or not.

It's, you did it. Now where's Julie?

We had a lot of evidence
that pointed towards Stark,

but nowhere near a smoking gun.

I was really hoping for a confession,

it would have been a
slam dunk with that.

The hair sample came back
from the Mahaffy case.

It's not Stark's.

Well, it doesn't mean
he didn't kill Julie.

Let's get a confession.

When I found out that Stark
was not the person responsible

for the death of Leslie Mahaffy,

it was even more important
getting him to confess

to the crime and tell us
where Julie's body is.

Our whole tactic with him in our
interrogation was no longer

"did you do this?"

It's "You did it, where is she?"

You saw what we had out there, right?

So why don't you...

do yourself a favour, save us
a boat load of time and just...

tell us what happened?

Start anywhere you like, you
know, Nancy Nelson,

Maria Woods, Julie Stanton...

just... go for it.

No?

All right, I'll start.

You know, we talked to Nancy.

You know, she's still hurting, you know,

she relives that night
over and over again.

It's awful.

You know, she really wishes that
she had the strength to testify

and put you behind bars back
then, because you know what?

She knows you killed Julie,

and she knows exactly how you did it.

Doesn't she?

What about uh, old girlfriend
of yours, Maria Woods?

You remember her?
Yeah. This is exciting.

We re-investigated the whole case

and re-excavated the crime scene.

Yeah.

And you know what?

We were able to determine
her cause of death.

She was shot.

And you know what else
was cool, is we found

a rare World War Two bullet

that can only be fired
from a Colt 45 automatic pistol.

The same World War Two Colt
automatic pistol that your

father gave you around the
time Maria Woods was shot.

A pistol you later got rid of, right?

On the advice of my counsel,
I have nothing to say.

Hm. All right.

Then what about Julie Stanton?

Huh?

Now, we know the story you
told, how your car broke down,

that's why you were dirty and
late picking up your wife.

We know that's a lie.

Julie trusted you, huh?

Hm?

Yeah.

She trusted you.

You pick her up, drive around...

assault her, have your way with her.

Then you killed her. Why?

Because you were mad that
your wife wouldn't play

your little 'hitchhiker'
game that day? Huh?

14 years old, Stark,
she was 14 years old.

Same age as your daughter.

On the advice of my counsel,
I have nothing to say.

Where'd you put her body, Stark?

Did you bury it like Maria Woods?

Is that it?

We've got you, every which way.

We know that you like to pick up...

young women...

preferably slim blondes.

That you assault them
and you murder them.

Now, why don't you take this chance...

and just clear your
conscience, just let it go.

Because we're going to get
you one way or another, Peter,

and you know it.

On the advice of my counsel,
I have nothing to say.

We weren't going to get a confession,

we weren't going to find that body.

There was no way I was going
to let him get away with it.

So we had enough to arrest him.

But didn't have all the evidence
necessary to convict him.

Now what?

He's going to walk again?

No, no. There's no way we let him walk.

We have one more option,

I was just hoping it
wouldn't come to this.

What are you doing here?

You remember what you told
me last time we talked?

I'm gonna need you to say
that in front of a jury.

He's my father.

I know.

I'm sorry to have to do this to you.

I felt really bad for Kim.

But, we've got no body,
got no crime scene,

we needed to get her testimony.

And I felt anger towards Stark.

He didn't have the balls to man
up and tell us where Julie was.

He let his daughter go through
that in a court of law.

On December 4th, 1994, Peter
Stark was found guilty

of first degree murder.

Project Hitchhiker was a success.

Peter Stark is going to prison for life.

Mr. Stark, how do you
feel about the verdict?

Do you feel that you got
justice, Mr. Stark?

The case isn't closed.

It won't get closed until
Julie's uh, remains are found.

Yes, we've convicted the
guy that abducted her,

but where's Julie?

Very shortly thereafter,
the search is continued on.

It wasn't until two years later
I get a phone call saying,

there's a farmer up in Manvers Township

who uh, has come across
skeletal remains.

We found her.

The Stantons were able to
have Julie come home

the night before she was buried
so they could have her at home

one more time before uh,
before they buried her.

Stark died after 25 years in prison,

and I think that's only right.

because that's 25 years
that Julie didn't have.

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- www.addic7ed.com -